The Maniac at the Opal Saloon
A hotel runner causes chaos after barricading himself inside a Third Street bar.
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.
Frank McCoy, a hotel runner, sometimes called McCulloch, was arrested yesterday by Detective Roberts upon a charge of being insane while wrecking the Opal saloon. Yesterday afternoon McCoy went into the Opal saloon, on Third street, corner of Cherry, and after ordering a drink stepped into a card room and locked the door. Then he divested himself of all his clothing, and proceeded to smash with chairs the windows opening into the room. He battered the door down with a card table and, rushing out into the bar-room, soon cleared the place by sweeping everything out with a table. A telephone message was sent to police headquarters, and Roberts, with the assistance of several bystanders, succeeded in overpowering the maniac and putting handcuffs on his wrists. Then he was dressed and carted to jail in the patrol wagon.
“He divested himself of all his clothing, and proceeded to smash with chairs the windows.”
Public outbursts in saloons were a common form of 'the police blotter' news in 1890s Seattle. Today, the corner of 3rd and Cherry is in the heart of the government district, worlds away from the transient hotel runner culture that once defined the downtown waterfront's nightlife.
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