Violent Outburst at Kepplar's Beer Hall
A quiet game of cards on Front Street turned bloody when a ship carpenter stabbed a local plasterer, leading to a quick intervention by the Chief of Police.
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, four men sat down in Kepplar's beer hall, on Front Street, to play a game of pedro. While thus engaged, a hard-looking ship carpenter named Jack Kerwin came into the saloon and commenced interfering with the game. One of the players, George Yank, a German plasterer who resides on White River, objected to this outside interference, and words were exchanged. Mr. Mehlhorn, who chanced to be there, called Kerwin aside and talked to him for a time, and it was generally supposed that everything was serene. The game was progressing quietly when all of a sudden Kerwin stepped up to Yank and stabbed him in the right side, between the ribs, with a large, keen-edged pocket knife, inflicting an ugly and probably fatal wound. Chief Woolery was passing, and hearing the commotion, rushed in and arrested the man with the knife before further mischief was done.
“Kerwin stepped up to Yank and stabbed him in the right side, between the ribs, with a large, keen-edged pocket knife.”
Public violence in saloons was a common staple of early Seattle reporting. While the 'saloon brawl' is a trope of the Wild West, these incidents highlight the lack of social safety nets and the often-volatile conditions of the city's labor-heavy downtown district.
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