A St. Patrick's Day Scuffle in the Bay Cities
Two men celebrated the holiday with a bit too much spirit, resulting in a public brawl that ended as quickly as it began.
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.
Last evening, shortly before six o'clock, two sons of the Emerald Isle, who had been wearing the green and drinking 'red liquor,' commenced quarreling over their native counties. The quarrel lasted only a few minutes when fighting commenced, and at the end of two or three minutes both men looked much 'worse for the wear.' Neither, however, was seriously damaged, and after a short time the fight was declared off, much to the disgust of several bystanders, and the men betook themselves to the nearest saloon where they drank in honor of the day and to the future success of their native home.
“The men betook themselves to the nearest saloon where they drank in honor of the day and to the future success of their native home.”
Fairhaven's 1890s saloon culture often provided a stage for ethnic pride and local friction, echoing the ways public spaces today still host the collision of tradition and rowdiness. The story captures a fleeting moment of social history where 'wearing the green' led to immediate, if non-lethal, consequences.
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