The Bear at 8th and Cherry
An early morning kitchen encounter with a cub ends abruptly for a Seattle resident.
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.
E.L. Winslow, who boarded at the home of John Ripplinger on the corner of 8th and Cherry streets, was awakened by a dog early yesterday morning. After chasing the dog away, he returned to the house, leaving the door ajar. Upon returning to the kitchen to investigate a noise, he found a half-grown bear eating from a jar of blackberry preserves. Winslow managed to slam the door on the bear, then roused the household. Armed with a Smith & Wesson revolver, Winslow and Ripplinger returned to the kitchen and killed the cub. Winslow planned to divide the meat among his neighbors if the bear's owner did not come forward.
“He was startled to see a half-grown bear take his head out of a jar of blackberry preserves and make straight for him.”
A wild bear wandering into a kitchen in what is now First Hill is a reminder of how quickly the urban landscape encroached on the wilderness in 1893 Seattle. Today, you'd call Animal Control; in 1893, you called for your revolver.
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