Streetcar Accident on Temperance Street
A local gardener suffers a severe injury after falling beneath the wheels of a Seattle cable car.
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.
James Butler, a gardener in the employ of C. M. Sheafe, had his right leg broken by a Front street cable car last night at 10:30 o'clock. Butler was on the dummy, and when in front of Mr. Sheafe's house, 110 Temperance street, stepped off, fell and his right leg went across the track. Both wheels of the coach passed over his leg just above the ankle, causing a painful fracture. He was carried into Col. Sheafe's house and later removed to Providence hospital in the patrol wagon.
“Both wheels of the coach passed over his leg just above the ankle, causing a painful fracture.”
This incident highlights the hazardous reality of Seattle's early cable car network, which relied on open-air 'dummies' and manual operation. Today, Temperance Street is known as 10th Avenue on First Hill, a quiet residential stretch far removed from the clamor of the downtown transit lines that once dominated the city's topography.
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