Brutal Assault in Centralia
An elderly resident has his thumb bitten off during a violent neighborhood altercation in Centralia.
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.
Centralia, Oct. 3.—An old man, 60 years of age and a resident for the last thirteen years, came to town yesterday to seek treatment. He had been very brutally treated at the hands of a neighbor named Carman. A few days ago one of his cows strayed and went to Carman's place. He went after it. Carman, who is a powerful man of middle age, abused him and also bit his thumb and bit off the end of one of his ears. The old man was carried to his home by neighbors, and has since suffered a great deal. The doctors found it necessary to amputate the thumb which had been bitten in order to save the old man's life.
“Carman, who is a powerful man of middle age, abused him and also bit his thumb and bit off the end of one of his ears.”
This gruesome neighborhood dispute serves as a reminder of the often-unmediated violence in late 19th-century frontier towns, where personal vendettas frequently turned physical in the absence of formalized social services.
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