Fatal Scuffle at the Bohemian Bar
A local man dies of infection following a rough dispute in a saloon.
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.
Coroner G. D. Shaver held an inquest in Department 4 of the superior court regarding the death of P. C. Warwick, who died Tuesday from the effects of a scalp wound received during a scuffle in a saloon last Thursday. An autopsy revealed that while Warwick did not sustain a fractured skull, the wound became infected, leading to his death. Witnesses, including bartender George Botts, described the altercation in which Warwick was struck and fell against a safe.
“Death was caused from infection which set in soon after he received the wound.”
This incident highlights the precariousness of life in the early 20th-century saloon culture, where minor disputes could turn fatal due to primitive medical outcomes. It serves as a grim reminder of how public spaces functioned as the primary sites of both social interaction and civil unrest in old Tacoma.
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