The Day the Circus Band Wagon Tore Through Downtown Tacoma

At 1 o'clock yesterday afternoon, four spirited horses attached to an old circus band wagon—which was plastered with advertisements for a shoe sale—ran away with disastrous and potentially fatal results. The wagon carried eight musicians and two drivers. While the team was turning from a street into Jackson, the footboard gave way, leaving the drivers unable to brace themselves and powerless to hold the reins. The horses bolted up the street at a furious pace. When they turned onto South Second Street, the heavy wagon was thrown around the corner, ejecting several musicians. One performer, named Gobbles, was thrown into the air and landed in the mud, while others jumped from the careening vehicle. The team eventually collided with a telegraph pole at the northwest corner of Washington and South Second Streets. An express wagon standing nearby was overturned, and the band wagon itself was shattered, trapping the drivers and musicians in the wreckage. Thomas Brown suffered a severe gash across his mouth, and Gobbles was left unconscious with a suspected spinal injury. The injured were treated at A. Kelly’s drug store before being moved to the hospital.