The Brutality of the Waterfront
A public confrontation on a Seattle wharf exposes the casual cruelty toward working animals in the booming lumber city.
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.
At about 3 o'clock yesterday afternoon, the attention of a number of people was attracted to a teamster on Colman's wharf who was beating his horse in a most cruel manner. It seems that the driver had started to back his horse, when the animal shied at something. This angered the teamster, and after violently jerking on the bit, he sprang from the seat of the wagon and began to belabor the unfortunate animal with an immense whip. A bystander interfered, and on his threatening to have the brutal driver arrested, he desisted.
“The teamster, and after violently jerking on the bit, he sprang from the seat of the wagon and began to belabor the unfortunate animal with an immense whip.”
Colman's Wharf, once the bustling epicenter of Seattle's timber and shipping industry, is now part of the modern waterfront near the ferry terminals. The public's intolerance for the cruel treatment of draft animals in 1889 reflects an early form of civic regulation that presages today's rigorous animal welfare ordinances in the city.
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