Gambling House Siege on Front Street
A theatrical manager battles a city crackdown with lawyers and his own fists.
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.
The gamblers of the city have been driven to their last entrenchments, and reserves of legal talent have been marshaled for a decisive engagement. The skirmishing began in Judge Glasgow's court yesterday, and the battle will be stubbornly contested. John W. Considine's attorney, John C. Kean, appeared yesterday to defend J. J. Burns, who was arrested last week for running a crap game in Considine's theater. His first movement was to demur to the complaint on the grounds that the city ordinance prohibiting gambling was invalid because it prescribed a penalty not authorized by state law. Judge Glasgow took the matter under consideration. But Considine is not trusting his case altogether to his attorney. There are two things he believes mightier than the law—his coin and his fist. He brought both into play yesterday and last night. Considine had tried to bribe witnesses Jack Cameron and W. L. Wilson, offering them money to leave town. When Wilson refused to sell out and Considine abused him, the theater manager jumped on him and gave him several hard punches, cutting Wilson's ear and face in several places.
“There are two things he believes mightier than the law—his coin and his fist.”
Considine’s Theater, once a center of downtown vice and rough-and-tumble legal fights, was a hallmark of the 'boom' era's attempt to regulate the morality of a growing frontier city. Today, downtown Seattle's struggles with regulation and public order echo these 1893 debates over which civic authorities hold the true power to command the streets.
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