The Horseshoe Saloon’s Midnight Raid
Police bust a gambling den on Yesler Avenue, only for the owners to reopen before the morning shift.
The police went down in force again last night to raid gambling rooms, gathering three men from the Horseshoe, but failing at Clancy & Burns'. About 8:30, two parties of police assembled at headquarters. One party, led by Capt. George W. Hogle, went to Clancy & Burns' and found two men playing a friendly game of 'freeze out' with no stakes, making no arrests. The second party, headed by Chief of Police Andrew Jackson, moved down Yesler Avenue to Pioneer Place, then to the rear entrance of the Horseshoe saloon. Battering in two doors, they found Dave Argyle, Mark Norton, and a third party named Williams in the act of dealing cards, alongside thirteen visitors. All were taken to headquarters. The three principals were booked for conducting a gambling house; the visitors were released as the judge ruled that merely watching the game was no offense. Dave Argyle and Mark Norton each put up $50 bail, and Williams $10. The trio was no sooner at liberty than they returned to the Horseshoe and opened the game again. It was still running at midnight, with a carpenter on-site barricading the doors against future raids.
“The trio was no sooner at liberty than they returned to the Horseshoe and opened the game again.”
This 1892 report captures the cat-and-mouse game between Seattle police and illegal gambling dens that defined early city life. The Horseshoe Saloon, located at the heart of the district around Pioneer Square, highlights how early 'vice' suppression was often performative, with businesses quickly fortifying themselves to outlast the latest political pressure.
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