A Violent Attack on a Chinese Laborer
A Chinese man working for Sheriff McGraw was mobbed by hoodlums on his way home from errands, prompting a call for justice.
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.
Sing Tei, a Chinese man employed in the family of Sheriff McGraw, was yesterday morning sent down town to purchase some groceries, and while on his return was attacked in front of the Wisconsin House by a crowd of hoodlums, who first pelted him with snowballs, and when he resented their unwelcome attentions, knocked him down and maltreated him shamefully. Sheriff McGraw has had Sing make a complaint against the ruffians, and they will be taught that unoffending Chinamen still have some rights. Snowballing and skylarking are all very well, but when it comes to forty or fifty burly sluggers attacking one Chinaman, fair play demands that the law takes a hand in the game.
This 1886 incident occurred during a period of intense anti-Chinese agitation in Seattle that eventually led to the forced expulsion of the city's Chinese population. It serves as a reminder that the safety of marginalized communities has historically been a flashpoint for civic order and moral accountability in the city.
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