A Runaway Team Causes Panic on Front Street
A teamster's attempt to stop his runaway horses results in a dangerous, public struggle near the Occidental Hotel.
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.
Yesterday afternoon, while W. Patchan, a teamster, was loading his wagon with hay at the depot, the team took fright and started at breakneck speed up a street toward the Occidental Hotel. Mr. Patchan was on the wagon but, fearing for the people on the ground, he jumped off to check the speed of the horses. The driver attempted to go between them to their heads, where he could get hold of the bits. In attempting this, he fell astride the tongue of the wagon and lay in that perilous position while the horses tore on down the street. On making Mill Street, the team, being unable to go through the Occidental Hotel, undertook to turn toward Taylor's Wharf, when one of the horses fell to the ground. William James seized the prostrate animal by the head and held him till the driver could extricate himself from his uncomfortable, not to say perilous, position.
“The driver attempted to go between them to their heads... In attempting this, he fell astride the tongue of the wagon and lay in that perilous position.”
Front Street is known today as First Avenue, the historic heart of downtown Seattle. The terrifying sight of a runaway team was a common, dangerous hazard of 1880s urban life, long before the city was tamed by traffic signals and motor vehicles.
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