A Runaway Horse Crashes Into a Tacoma Shop
A spooked horse hitched to a cutter careened down St. Helens Avenue before smashing through a storefront, meeting a tragic end.
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 runaway horse hitched to an empty cutter crashed through two large plate glass show windows of Christoferson, Campion Co., at Ninth and C streets, about 10 o'clock last night, and was fatally injured by striking its head against an iron pillar. The cutter had been occupied by Neil Conklin, Ed Plume, and two young ladies. It was the property of the Washington stables. Near the Bonneville hotel, the runners caught in the street car tracks and the sleigh turned over, spilling the occupants in the snow. The horse dashed madly down St. Helens avenue, and, when he reached Ninth, was going with such speed that the accident could not be averted. The contents of the window were ruined by blood which spurted from the animal's head.
“The contents of the window were ruined by blood which spurted from the animal's head.”
St. Helens Avenue remains a central thoroughfare in Tacoma, though the era of horse-drawn cutters and storefronts facing iron-pillar accidents has long passed. This incident illustrates the daily hazards of early 20th-century urban transit when non-motorized traffic intersected with growing streetcar infrastructure.
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