A Bloody Melee at the Saloon
A violent brawl involving 'tramps' and razors spills out onto the streets of Spokane Falls, ending with multiple arrests.
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 row broke out last night at Victor Dessert's saloon, on Mill and Railroad streets in Spokane Falls, which, if of short duration, was a bloody affair. There were a dozen or more men, principally tramps, engaged in the melee. It appears that all kinds of weapons, except the effective gun, were used in the encounter. When the alarm was given, officers hastened to the scene and arrested all the parties implicated, all of whom were taken to jail, except one, who had the side of his face split open with a razor; he was taken to a drug store. Two of the parties brought to the lock-up, who gave their names as Harry Johnson and James Kehoe, were badly cut. The former had a terrible gash in the fleshy portion of his left hip, the wound being inflicted with a large knife. Kehoe was stabbed in the back, below the left shoulder blade, inflicting a terrible wound.
“It appears that all kinds of weapons, except the effective gun, were used in the encounter.”
This 1889 account of a violent clash in a downtown Spokane saloon echoes modern-day concerns regarding public safety, the criminalization of unhoused or transient populations, and the historical use of 'tramp' as a loaded descriptor for those struggling on the fringes of urban centers.
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