2

To the Honorable the Mayor and Common Council
of the City of Seattle:

The petition of the undersigned
respectfully represents:

That on the 26th day of May 1884
L. E. Ackley was arrested and fined by City Justice
Cann in the sum of $15.75 having been charged
with riding his horse on the side walk on
Washington Street on the preceeding morning.

The facts as alleged by Mr. Ackley,
and which he states can be conclusively shown, are
as follows: On the morning of May 25th, Mr. Ackley
was bringing his horse through Washington Street,
(at about 6 o'clock) on his way to John Langston's
Livery Stable intending to join two other horsemen
who were to accompany him on a trip up White
River. When he got to Second Street, he found
that the excavations for the new sewer had rendered
Washington Street, from Second to Commercial,
utterly impassible. Being in a hurry to join his
companions he slowly rode his horse on the
sidewalk a distance of about 120 feet, doing
no damage to the walk, and doing as many others
had done about that time. Mr. Ackley claims
that he had no intention of violating any city
ordinance and was only convicted on a
technicality, the justice holding that as long
as a policeman had arrested him, he could
not go behind the plain letter of the ordinance.