Our Historical Archive


San Francisco Morning Call

January 30, 1893. This article is reprinted below.

Disclaimer: All newspaper articles are reprinted exactly as they appeared in the newspaper regardless of misspellings, grammar, errors, or omissions.

Greek Met Greek - Rival Candy Peddlers in Conflict

Unable to Use Their Fists, They Pelt Each Other With the Contents of Their Trays.

Greek met Greek in front of the California Theater last night, and at the end of a fierce battle were taken into custody by a humble policeman and jailed for disturbing the peace.

The warriors were John Molarinos and John Pronzos, candy peddlers, dusky of bone and lithe of limb, who first saw the light in the land of Homer. The two Greeks, each with a tray of candy upon his breast were lying in wait for the audience of the California Theater. They jostled each other near the arched doorway and began to say unkind things about the personal appearance, the garments and the ancestors of each other.

Hampered by their trays, which they could not put down on the account of the rain, they were unable to use their fists, and their tongues at length growing weary they began to pelt each other with candy.

They smote each other with the soft and clinging cream drops and maddened each other with hardhearted little drops of sugar. Their stock in trade was almost exhausted when the curtain fell upon the last act of "The Old Homestead".

A large crowd of highly amused theatergoers gathered around the combatants and enthusiastically applauded their efforts. The warriors shared the attention of the spectators with two little bootblacks who displayed wonderful agility in catching the sweet missiles. Policeman Richter finally appeared and to the intense disgust of the spectators, the bootblacks included, took the warriors captive and bore them away to the dungeon vile on Kearny street.

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