Market Wagon Runaway Causes Dockside Chaos
A startled team of horses pulling a Seattle market delivery wagon crashed through railings on a city dock, resulting in a dramatic, albeit property-damaging, incident.
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.
A runaway on the City dock yesterday morning caused considerable commotion for a few minutes. The Seattle market delivery wagon, drawn by two horses, was driven to the dock at 7 o'clock to deliver meat to the vessel Monticello. The horses were left standing with their heads toward the water. When the Monticello whistled, the horses bolted toward the face of the dock. They turned around the warehouse along the narrow passage on the front of the wharf, knocking down railings and crossing a slip. The horses made it safely over the slip on two planks laid for pedestrians, but the wagon fell through, effectively wedging the animals.
“When the Monticello whistled, the horses started to run toward the face of the dock.”
Before the waterfront was heavily industrialized and subsequently modernized into today's piers and seawalls, Seattle's docks were chaotic, wooden environments where horse-drawn logistics frequently collided with the realities of maritime noise.
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