Bloodshed at the Ellensburg Saloon
A violent confrontation involving knives and pistols leaves one man hospitalized and his opponents marked by his resistance.
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.
A fearful bar room fight took place at Ellensburg on Sunday last participated in by Dave Corrall, Duncan and John McCormic and Ed Emerson. Knives were used freely and pistols drawn but the latter cut an unimportant part in the row. Corrall was badly handled and is confined to his bed from his injuries but he made a game fight against heavy odds and his antagonists will bear the marks of his prowess for some time to come. It is said the fight was forced upon him.
“Knives were used freely and pistols drawn but the latter cut an unimportant part in the row.”
Public brawls were a staple of early Yakima-area newspaper reporting, often capturing the raw volatility of gold-rush-era towns where men carried weapons as a matter of daily routine. Such incidents highlight the lack of policing and the informal, often violent, codes of honor that governed early civic life.
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