A Deadly Brawl in an Everett Saloon
A night of heavy drinking in an early Everett tavern turns fatal after a fractured skull leads to a murder investigation.
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.
EVERETT, May 7.—John Parris, who was assaulted in a saloon Thursday night by 'Kid' Clark, died this morning. The crime grew out of a saloon quarrel. Parris, who had formerly worked for Contractor Mavey, was laying off for a few days. Thursday night, after drinking hard, he visited the Mug saloon, near the river, and provoked a quarrel with a young fellow who was a particular friend of Kid Clark. The latter, standing by, made the quarrel his own, and struck Parris with a beer glass, fracturing his skull. The extent of his injuries was not known at the time, and Clark was allowed to get away. Parris grew rapidly worse and died this morning. A warrant for assault and battery was first issued against Clark and changed to murder today. Officers started this morning in pursuit of Clark, and it is reported this evening that he has been captured near Snohomish.
“The crime grew out of a saloon quarrel.”
Everett was a fledgling industrial town in 1892, defined by the rapid and often volatile growth of its labor force. Today, the city reflects on that era of lawlessness as a reminder of the frontier-like conditions that characterized early Pacific Northwest boomtowns.
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