A Literal Piece of Evidence
A Tacoma man presented his own severed nose to the police court following a brawl over a woman.
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.
TACOMA, Dec. 26.—Ed Hazleton, colored, appeared in the police court today with his nose in his pocket. On Christmas eve he fought with Joe Hasan, colored, to decide who should have the entire affections of a colored woman. Hasan set his fine, pearly teeth in his rival's nose during the scrimmage, and nipped it off and spat it in the snow. There Hazleton found it today, wrapped it in a piece of paper and tucked it away in his vest pocket. Owing to the bandages on his face he could not show the court that he was noseless, so he brought the nose along in his pocket as evidence. The case was continued until tomorrow.
“He brought the nose along in his pocket as evidence.”
While the reporting employs the era's problematic 'colored' shorthand, it documents a visceral, violent public incident that shows the raw, often unglamorous nature of police court reality in the 1890s.
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