The Waterfront Conflict: Escalating Violence on Yesler's Wharf
Tensions boil over as displaced workers and local youth clash in a series of violent altercations on the Seattle waterfront.
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.
Last night as we were going to press a general fight was in progress between the Chinamen who were fishing on Yesler's wharf and the boys who ought to have been at school. Since so many Chinamen have been discharged at the various mill ports and on the railroad, they have congregated in this city, and many of them sustain life by fishing with hooks and lines from the wharves. The boys who prefer to grow up to manhood in ignorance and vice to attend our excellent city schools take especial delight in stealing fish and lines from these Mongolians and annoying them in every possible way. John usually bears all with indifference, but when he gets "riled" is satisfied with nothing short of blood. Yesterday the Chinamen were fishing on Yesler's wharf as usual, and the boys were pestering them as usual. At last the patience of two of the Chinamen became exhausted, and they started after the boys. The boys squared off and met the attack in true hoodlum style, when a Chinaman drew a knife and was about plunging it into one of the boys. At this instant a man caught his arm from behind, and as the Chinaman struck the knife flew from his hand into the bay. Two of the boys then beat the two Chinamen until their faces were covered with blood. This was too much for the dozen or more Celestials who were watching and each seized a club and all started after the boys. At this juncture a number of sailors and others interfered and took away the clubs. Thus disarmed the Chinamen proved unequal to the task of subduing the boys, and the combatants dispersed.
“John usually bears all with indifference, but when he gets 'riled' is satisfied with nothing short of blood.”
This 1877 report captures the early xenophobic tensions that would eventually culminate in the forced expulsion of Seattle's Chinese community in 1886. The language of the era reflects a common dehumanization of immigrant labor, showing that the 'Seattle vs. the Outsider' narrative is a recurring, albeit deeply ugly, strain in the city's history.
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