A Violent Razor Attack at the Mint Saloon
An ex-convict slashes a stranger in a brutal morning dispute that echoes the volatile atmosphere of Seattle's early Pioneer Square.
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.
One of the most brutal cutting affairs recorded in police annals for many days took place yesterday morning at the Mint saloon on Washington street. William Robinson, an ex-convict from Oregon, the aggressor, slashed Alexander Strom, a laborer, in the face and arm with a razor. The cuts went to the bone in each case, and in the former extended from the middle of the left cheek to the tip of the chin. Robinson was captured a short time after the affair by Captain Hanna and locked up on the charge of assault with a deadly weapon. It is said Robinson engaged in an altercation with Strom, calling him a 'Swede' before making two vicious slashes. Strom was bundled into the police patrol wagon and hurried to police headquarters, where Dr. Palmer attended to his injuries. The cut on the arm required three stitches and that on the cheek twelve. Strom underwent the operation without a murmur. When Captain Hanna encountered Robinson on Washington street shortly after, the suspect's hands were covered with blood. Robinson surrendered quietly, though he did not deny the act. Robinson has been in the city some time and was once arrested on suspicion of burglarizing the Wiginski house at the corner of James and Fourth streets, though he was discharged. The police have tried to convict him as a vagrant once or twice, but Judge Glasgow turned him loose.
“It was a horrible sight, the spurting blood, the gory razor and the slapping flesh.”
This incident occurred in the heart of Pioneer Square, an area that remains a center of Seattle’s nightlife and social tensions. The casual violence described reflects the rough-hewn, unregulated environment of 1891 Seattle, a stark contrast to the modern city’s gentrified, yet still complex, street life.
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