Throwback Thursday: A Colorful Description of an 1883 Drug-Induced Saloon Brawl In Monticello, Jones, Iowa

Newspaper Archive, Iowa, Monticello, Monticello Express, 1883 Monticello Express, January 4, 1883, Page 3

I think this is a description of one of my 2nd 4 times removed cousins, John Burnight (b 1869) (on my father's father's side), who would have been 14(!) and a Mr. Fahey, of an undetermined age.  There was an Irish Fahey family in Jones County at the time, so I suppose it is apt that Mr. Fahey is being described as "that Celtic devotee of Gambrinus."

A statue of King Gambrinus, in Germany, courtesy of By EPei at German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24456757

The wording of the article reminds me of the smart aleck dialogue from the classic 1993 movie Tombstone, which was peppered with now-obscure historical or mythical references.  The movie characters would be contemporary to John Burnight and the author of the article:

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