The Wharfside Brawl
A confrontation between expressmen at Commercial Wharf turns violent, resulting in a biting incident and a police intervention.
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.
The persecution to which an expressman named Weinberg has been subjected at the Commercial wharf by the other expressmen culminated about 2 o'clock yesterday in a fight between Officer John Kelly and one of the men. The latter is now in jail under the name of John Doe. The steamer Gatzert had just landed her passengers when Doe began turning one of the wheels of Weinberg's wagon, pushing the horse into the passengers and scaring them. This started a quarrel, and Kelly stepped up to stop it. He seized Doe by the throat. Doe struck at him and they closed. A struggle followed, in which Doe savagely bit Kelly on the hand, but with the aid of his club and several officers of the Charleston Kelly overcame his man and marched him up to jail.
The waterfront of the 1890s was a volatile, competitive space where transit workers often clashed over access to passengers. Modern conflicts over gig-economy transportation and airport staging areas reveal that the struggle for space and market access remains as high-stakes as ever.
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