The Eight-Year-Old Hero of West Street
While bystanders watched in horror as a heavy wagon rattled down the hill, a young boy showed remarkable poise to rein in a runaway team of horses.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A team belonging to Wheeler, Culbertson & Co. ran away while the wagon was being loaded with feed and hay at the Lilly, Bogardus & Co. warehouse yesterday. One of the warehousemen jumped to catch the reins when the team started, but was thrown down by the wagon. A little boy about 8 years old was in the wagon, and as the horses dashed madly up West street, scattering hay and feed in every direction, he had all he could do to hang on, and all the bystanders expected every second to see him thrown off and killed or seriously injured. But he coolly climbed down off the seat, got hold of the reins, and guided the horses along the middle of the street until they were about half-way up West street hill, when he brought them to a halt. The brave little fellow did not show the least signs of excitement when the crowd gathered around him to prevent the team from getting away from him again.
“The brave little fellow did not show the least signs of excitement when the crowd gathered around him.”
In 1892, West Street was the bustling waterfront industrial corridor of Seattle, a place of runaway horses and heavy drayage. Today, that same area is the site of the bustling Alaskan Way, where traffic hazards have evolved from spooked teams to gridlock and construction, but the precarious nature of navigating the city's waterfront remains a constant.
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