A Saloon Brawl on South Third: No Knives, No Proof
A cutting scrape at the Golden State hotel leaves authorities puzzled: was it a knife or just a fight? The charge is reduced to simple assault.
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.
From what could be learned yesterday concerning the cutting scrape between Charles Williams, colored, and John Meghan at the old Golden State hotel on South Third street, the former was drawn into the affair through force of circumstances. Ruby Stanley, the disreputable woman who is the cause of the trouble, was quarreling with Meghan and a white man, whose name could not be learned, ran downstairs for help. Williams came up and, as is usual in such cases, got into the trouble head over heels.
Meghan was cut slightly, but with what no one can find out. There is not a bit of proof that it was a knife. On this lack of evidence the charge has been reduced to simple assault and battery.
All parties to the row are lodged in the city jail. A writ of habeas corpus was threatened in respect to Williams, but it did not materialize.
“There is not a bit of proof that it was a knife. On this lack of evidence the charge has been reduced to simple assault and battery.”
The Golden State hotel is long gone, but the story of a bar fight, a woman at the center, and a confused legal outcome still feels like a scene from a modern nightlife district. The racial dynamics and the labeling of the woman as 'disreputable' remind us how the press of the era framed such incidents.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.