Fighting Whisky and a Free Fight in Steilacoom's Streets
A dozen strangers brawl outside Jerry Dennis's house, prompting the editor to demand the disorderly den be closed.
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.
On Sunday last, the most disgraceful scenes that we have yet witnessed here were enacted in our streets. That day seemed to have been set apart by a collection of ruffians for an exhibition of their brutal propensities; for there were a larger number of them in the field than we have seen at any time before. After drinking to excess at the house of Jerry Dennis, those ruffians, with their worst passions roused by the effects of liquor (from which we infer that it must have been what is commonly called fighting whisky), commenced an indiscriminate or free fight, in which about a dozen engaged, and amused themselves for some time knocking each other down. Fortunately none but the participants suffered in these fights; some of them having their profiles seriously damaged and their dry goods rent.
It is gratifying to remark that the parties who figured in this row, and indeed who always disturb the peace of our town, were and are strangers here; none of our townspeople caring to distinguish themselves in this manner. The house in which this disturbance originated has been complained of as a den of vice, and the question has been asked us, can it not be closed? We think it can and should be. In every well-ordered community there are laws or ordinances for closing disorderly houses; and we doubt not, if the proper steps are taken, this blot upon our town may be removed.
“On Sunday last, the most disgraceful scenes that we have yet witnessed here were enacted in our streets.”
A century and a half before modern debates over downtown nightlife and public safety, Steilacoom's editor wanted a disorderly house closed and the city government to act. The complaint sounds familiar: outsiders, liquor, a street fight, and a demand that officials do something. Policing public space and regulating bars remains an old civic argument.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.