A Fifty-Pound Devil Fish Stuns West Seattle
Local anglers land a massive cephalopod in the harbor, turning it into a grisly roadside attraction at a neighborhood saloon.
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.
Henry Gehrig and Conrad Weininc yesterday caught a devil fish in the harbor off West Seattle with a spoon hook. They had considerable trouble to land the monster, which weighed fifty pounds and had eight arms six feet long, each arm having over 200 suckers. A saloonkeeper bought the fish and placed it on exhibition in front of his place, a large crowd being attracted by the unusual sight.
“They had considerable trouble to land the monster, which weighed fifty pounds and had eight arms six feet long.”
While giant Pacific octopuses are common to our local waters, their status as a macabre public spectacle reminds us of the 'curiosity culture' of the 1890s, where strange natural encounters were frequently harvested for entertainment in local taprooms.
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