The Scissors-Duel of La Conner
A Seattle capitalist and a labor agitator clash in a bizarre, violent confrontation that left the local agitator wounded and the city buzzing with gossip.
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.
Milas Galliher, a Seattle capitalist, stabbed O. F. Wegener at the McGlynn house this morning. Galliher was arraigned before Justice Oweily and sent to Mount Vernon for trial in the superior court. Milas Galliher is a wealthy and respected citizen of Seattle, residing near the corner of Kentucky and High streets. He settled at Olympia in the early fifties, and has large property interests at Olympia, near La Conner and also in Seattle. He is about 60 years old, has a wife and several children and has the reputation of being peaceable and law-abiding. Otto F. Wegener was a notorious participant in the Seattle anti-Chinese agitation. He is a civil engineer by profession, and while a resident of this city was a conspicuous member of the Central Labor Union. But the workingmen became familiar with his methods, and he passed away.
“Milas Galliher... has the reputation of being peaceable and law-abiding.”
This violent encounter captures the intense class volatility of the 1890s in the Puget Sound region, where personal grievances often boiled over into public displays of aggression. Today’s discourse over labor, property, and civic instability continues to echo the same friction between the capital class and professional agitators seen in this 1892 report.
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