A pugilist's brutal night in the street
After being turned away from a hotel bar, professional boxer Jim Hall finds himself on the wrong end of a cabman's brawl.
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.
Jim Hall, the pugilist, has again turned his hand to pugilism. Last night he encountered several cabmen in front of the Hoffman House, with the result that he emerged with a badly cut face and is now somewhere in seclusion. Hall, at midnight, drove up to the hotel in a cab. He got out, and entering the hotel, started for the barroom. He was drunk, and 'Billy' Edwards stopped the pugilist and told him the barroom was closed. Hall went back to where the cab was standing, pulled the cabman from his seat and began to use him as a punching bag. The other cabmen in the neighborhood rallied to their unfortunate brother's defense in numbers and determination, much to the discomfiture of Hall, who was thrown down, kicked and pounded by the enraged cabmen until he cried, bleeding and by this time sober. The late victim of the cabman's prowess was borne away by two sympathizing friends who were passing at the time in a cab. Who they were or where Hall was taken is not known.
“Hall... pulled the cabman from his seat and began to use him as a punching bag.”
Public altercations involving prominent local figures remain a staple of Seattle news, though the transit methods have shifted from horse-drawn cabs to modern ride-shares. This account serves as a gritty reminder of the era's 'muscular' nightlife, where status provided little protection against a collective defense of labor.
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