The Perpetual-Motion Man Came Downtown Armed
Before Dr. Hannibal Mills shot a man in the Occidental saloon, he told a restaurant waiter he would not live until morning and announced, “I'm God, the devil and himself.”
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.
Dr. Hannibal Mills, the perpetual-motion crank who shot Ole Anderson in the Occidental saloon on Thursday evening, started upon the warpath early.
At 7 o'clock, about half an hour before the shooting occurred, Gus Farrier, waiter in the New Arlington restaurant, was dozing in his chair at the head of the stair. His attention was attracted by a tall man dressed in dark clothes and wearing a slouch hat, who was coming up the stairs straight towards him. As the man came closer he noticed that he was dark and clean shaved, and that he was rubbing his chin in a reflective manner. Then turning his eyes, which glittered wildly, straight upon Farrier, he abruptly remarked: “You don't look well; I don't think you will live long,” here he paused, and then added, “no, not till morning.”
Farrier was naturally astonished, and then said, “Don't you think that that is pretty short notice?”
“By not living till morning—look at this,” and he ran his hand behind his back and half drew a black pistol from his pocket. A pause then ensued, and the visitor remarked: “I'm God, the devil and himself; now figure that out for yourself.”
The conversation then became more general, and Farrier's visitor then said that he was going to the theater, and turned to leave. Before he left, however, his parting question was: “What do you chew gum for? If you want to chew anything, chew this,” and he handed over a piece of candy.
The stranger then disappeared down the stairs, leaving Farrier to turn over in his mind and speculate upon the adventure. The longer he pondered the more convinced he became that the man was not drunk but insane, and he was strengthened in this opinion by reading Dr. Mills' conduct later in the evening.
A complaint was filed with Justice Caldwell yesterday charging Dr. Hannibal G. Mills, the perpetual motion machine inventor, who shot Ole Anderson, in the Occidental saloon, with assault with a deadly weapon. The doctor's bonds were placed at $500, which he secured late in the day with Frank Lillie and C. H. Chaffey as sureties. The case will come up tomorrow afternoon at 2 o'clock.
“I'm God, the devil and himself; now figure that out for yourself.”
This strange armed encounter unfolded in the saloons and cheap restaurants of downtown Seattle, where an eccentric inventor apparently moved from unsettling talk to gunfire in a single evening. The story is a reminder that public safety, mental distress and easy access to weapons have long been tangled together in the city's core. The Occidental saloon is gone, but the same blocks remain thick with nightlife and strangers passing close by one another.
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