The 'Pistol-Packin' Girl' of Seattle's Waterfront
A rowdy encounter on the Seattle waterfront leaves a man stunned after a local girl pulls a pistol on him—and fires.
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.
An exciting scuffle occurred in a saloon on the waterfront yesterday between one Hunter and Rhoda Anderson, of the lower-class variety. Rhoda Anderson pulled an empty revolver from her pocket and remarked that she would shoot Hunter. Hunter, in the spirit of humor, disappeared while he dared the girl to put a cap in it, and continuing in that vein, faced her, pulled his nose, and told her to track the girl in the back; but owing to the condition of her revolver, no damage was done. Hunter ran, but was subsequently discharged.
“Hunter, in the spirit of humor, disappeared while he dared the girl to put a cap in it.”
This 1885 scrap on the Seattle waterfront offers a gritty, human-interest window into the lawless, rough-and-tumble atmosphere of the city’s early maritime economy. While the language used by the paper is patronizing, the scene captures a moment where gender roles and public safety were as loosely defined as the city's own early street maps.
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