Saloon Brawl Ends in Hospitalization
An evening of drinking on Pacific Avenue turns violent, leading to one man's arrest and another's injury.
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.
As the result of a vicious hand-to-hand battle in a Pacific avenue saloon, James Knudson was taken to the Fannie Paddock hospital, badly slashed and bruised, and William Burke, his adversary, was locked up in jail. Burke, it is alleged, used a razor with which to attack his opponent. There was no evident cause for a fight, except that the two men were full of liquor.
“There was no evident cause for a fight, except that the two men were full of liquor.”
The presence of early 20th-century saloons on Pacific Avenue highlights the rowdier side of Tacoma's development before Prohibition. It serves as a stark reminder of the social friction that prompted the later temperance movement.
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