A Deadly Feud Over Horsepower
Two brothers face a police investigation after their competitive spirit leads to the death of a workhorse.
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.
There was a dead horse found on Union near Thirteenth street yesterday, and the police are investigating the matter to see if any one should be prosecuted for cruelty to animals. The story in possession of Chief of Police Rogers is to the effect that two brothers, Peter and John Friueil, got into an argument about the merits of their respective horses. One thought his horse could outhaul the other. To settle the matter they hitched the horses back to back to a whiffletree and then set them to pulling. Finally Peter’s horse went down on the ground. That stopped the contest. Now the horse is dead, and the question is whether its death was due to an injury amounting to cruelty.
“To settle the matter they hitched the horses back to back to a whiffletree and then set them to pulling.”
This incident reflects the raw, often violent nature of 1890s frontier social disputes, where personal pride was frequently settled with little regard for the animals involved. While animal cruelty laws were in their infancy, the case shows the early, clumsy efforts of the Seattle Police Department to define ethical boundaries in public conduct.
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