The Sad End of Sport the Fire Dog
The local firehouse dog, a beloved fixture of the Seattle south end, met a tragic end under the wheels of a patrol wagon.
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.
Sport, Tommy Clancy's dog, was killed Saturday evening by one of the patrol wagon horses. There is nothing specially interesting about an ordinary dog's death, but Sport was an extraordinary animal. Everyone south of Yesler Avenue knew the dog. Firemen were always on the lookout for him when an alarm came from the south end of the city, and if the opportunity afforded, he would fight a stream of water to a finish. He never let the patrol wagon pass without going with it a short distance. While running out to greet the patrol wagon Saturday evening, a big black dog struck him and he was crushed by the patrol horses. He picked himself up, walked a short distance toward home, and fell dead. Today a regular funeral will be held in his honor.
“Sport was 5 years old and was born in the old 'Never Touched Me' saloon on Jackson street.”
The public mourning for a city mascot like Sport demonstrates the tightly-knit, localized culture of Seattle's neighborhoods in the late 19th century. Even in a rapidly industrializing city, community figures could be animal companions, a tradition that persists in local pet culture today.
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