The Perilous Mudholes of Early Seattle

On Monday evening last, while Judge Albert Briggs was coming down the bluff to Quincy street in his wagon to attend a meeting at the Good Templar's Hall, his horse ran off the narrow causeway, or trail, which constitutes that part of the street. The wagon, which contained Mrs. Rufus Calhoun, U.S. Deputy Marshal J.G. Clinger, and Judge Briggs, was overturned. All were thrown out with great violence into the mudhole which has so long disgraced that part of our city. But the worst remains to be told: in that mudhole, a few feet from the trail, was a long, square stick of timber with five or six old rusty iron bolts, six or eight inches long, sticking out from its upper surface. Judge Briggs was thrown directly on the timber, and as he kept firm hold of the reins, he was dragged across the bolts which tore his right thigh in a most shocking manner, inflicting a ragged wound in a triangular shape 3x7 inches. The Judge was removed to the Cosmopolitan Hotel, where his wound was dressed by Dr. Williston. Mrs. Calhoun received several bruises, but nothing serious, and Mr. Clinger hit his head, resulting in a stitch in the neck and back pain, but nothing serious.