The Seattle Courtroom Brawl
Two prominent attorneys, including a former judge and an ex-mayor, exchanged blows in a courthouse hallway after a heated legal dispute.
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.
SEATTLE, Jan. 15.—Former Superior Judge G. M. Emory and ex-Mayor J. T. Ronald, opposing counsel in a case on trial, quarreled in the courtroom this morning. After the case had been dismissed, the men met in the corridor and Emory called Ronald a liar. Ronald hit him in the face with his fist, breaking his glasses, and Emory landed on Ronald's chin. A crowd of attorneys and officials separated the men. Both are leading attorneys of the city and had been the best of friends.
“Emory called Ronald a liar. Ronald hit him in the face with his fist.”
Public outbursts by elected officials and high-profile lawyers remain a source of scandal today, though we are perhaps less surprised by physical violence between legal professionals now than observers might have been in the more formal decorum of 1904. It serves as a reminder that the stress of the courtroom often spills over into the hallways, regardless of the century.
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