A Barroom Brawl on Washington Street
A morphine-addicted laborer brings chaos to a downtown saloon, highlighting the volatile daily life of Seattle's waterfront workers in 1899.
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.
Pat McMillan, a morphine fiend, was arrested late yesterday afternoon, charged with stabbing Mr. McLeod, a laborer. The two men were drinking in a saloon on Washington Street when they became involved in an argument, but no one paid any attention to them until McLeod cried out that he had been stabbed in the abdomen. The knife used was a small one, and the wound will not prove fatal. McMillan was taken to police headquarters and, when locked up in the receiving cell, began his abuse upon the other prisoners. He knocked three men down before Jailer Corning arrived and gave him something better to think about.
“He knocked three men down before Jailer Corning arrived and gave him something better to think about.”
This 1899 scuffle in a Washington Street saloon echoes the persistent struggle of public safety and substance-related volatility that continues to shape the discourse around Seattle's downtown neighborhoods today.
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