Scandal at the Capital
A public altercation between a visiting 'Dean' and Olympia's Mayor leads to calls for her departure.
Mrs. Dr. Sawtelle, 'Dean of the Woman's College,' San Francisco, again made herself notorious this evening by getting into conversation with the worthy Mayor Dr. N. Ostrander. She forgot her self-respect to spit in the face of our Chief Magistrate, at the same time striking him in the face with her clenched hand. The affair created quite an excitement in town, and the results of her conduct are the talk of the streets. It is to be hoped that she will now leave town, as her friends, especially of the fair sex, are few and far between.
“She forgot her self-respect to spit in the face of our Chief Magistrate.”
The reporting here is dripping with contemporary bias against women in public positions of power, pathologizing a political or personal outburst as 'notorious.' It serves as a reminder of how the press used gendered character assassination to settle civic scores in the late 19th century.
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