The Street Brawl Between the Inspector and the Capitalist
A government official and a prominent local businessman trade blows in front of a downtown saloon.
George Brackett, the Edmonds capitalist, had a fistic encounter on the street yesterday with Captain W. J. Bryant, the local government inspector of steam vessels. The men met in front of the Nevada saloon, on Front Street, near Cherry, last evening at 5 o'clock, and after a few words were exchanged they came to blows and fell to the pavement. The streets were crowded at the time and the combatants were pulled off each other and the crowd dispersed. Captain Bryant escaped serious injury, but Brackett fared worse; his face was swollen and he bled freely from a cut on the right cheek, near the nose, caused, presumably, by a ring worn by Captain Bryant. Both men were placed under arrest.
“The men met in front of the Nevada saloon... and after a few words were exchanged they came to blows and fell to the pavement.”
Public brawls between prominent figures were often grist for the mill in the 1890s, when personal reputation and physical toughness were publicly debated in the press. The location, Front Street (now 1st Avenue), was the heart of Seattle's rough-and-tumble business district.
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