Tragedy at the Miners' Arms Saloon
A senseless killing in a Roslyn saloon ends in the arrest of a suspect and the burial of the victim.
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.
On Saturday evening last, at the Miners’ Arms saloon, a place kept by Chris. Hatpin in Roslyn, another murder was committed. A man named William Fox had just come into the saloon from a hunting trip and was leaning on the stock of his rifle when Robert Anderson, also colored, staggered into the saloon much the worse for liquor. Without any apparent provocation, Anderson whipped out his revolver and shot Fox in the arm. Fox tried to get out of the way and asked Anderson what he was shooting him for. The reply was, 'I'm going to give it to you good this time,' and with that he again raised his revolver and shot, the second bullet striking Fox near the right eye and entering the brain. The unfortunate man lived but a short time. The murderer then ran out of the saloon, but was soon caught and under a strong guard he was taken by special train to Ellensburg and landed in jail. Fox was buried on Sunday.
“I'm going to give it to you good this time.”
Roslyn’s history as a rugged coal-mining boomtown often resulted in violence in its crowded saloons, a common reality in many frontier settlements of the era. Today, the town has transitioned from its industrial roots to a historic destination, with the Miners’ Arms replaced by preserved structures that tell a quieter version of this past.
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