The 'Lava-Bed Ranger' and the Brawl at the Saloon
A rowdy evening in 1876 Seattle ends in a courtroom, highlighting the rough-and-tumble street life of a frontier town.
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.
John W. McDonald, a well-known 'Lava-Bed ranger,' was on a decidedly big time last night. He went into the house of Williams, an old colored man, and after some words with him, knocked him down and kicked him in the head, cutting his face up badly. Afterwards, he went into a down-town saloon and endeavored to get up a row. After throwing him out of the house two or three times, the proprietor gave him in charge of an officer, and he was taken to the lock-up. This morning, he was tried before Justice Scott on the charges of assault and battery and drunk and disorderly and fined on the first charge $10 and costs, and on the second charge $15 and costs. On the officer's attempting to take him to jail from the Justice's office, he showed fight, and assistance of the bystanders had to be procured.
“After throwing him out of the house two or three times, the proprietor gave him in charge of an officer and was taken to the lock-up.”
While legal institutions have shifted from 19th-century street-level policing, the recurring theme of public disorder and the struggle for justice in Seattle's downtown core remains a constant thread in the city's history.
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