The Sewing Machine Grudge
A bitter rivalry between two Seattle sewing machine agents leads to arrest, embezzlement charges, and petty sabotage.
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.
The hearing of Edward P. Smith, the White Sewing Machine man, charged by P. R. Morton, manager of the Seattle agency of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, with larceny by embezzlement, will take place Friday before Justice Caldwell. The hearing was continued in order to permit a witness from Enumclaw to be in attendance. The fact of Smith's arrest in Tacoma Monday night has been published, but there is an interesting chain of circumstances connected with the arrest. Nine months ago, Smith was in Tacoma, out of a job and stranded. He wrote to Morton for work, but Morton, not liking Smith's methods, answered that if Smith would 'put up a good and acceptable bond in the sum of $1,000,' his application might be considered. This made Smith indignant. He swore revenge. A few months ago, Smith secured a job with the White Sewing Machine Company and began to travel over the state. Smith made a practice of replacing a Singer machine with a White whenever he could, taking the Singer and returning it to Morton in Seattle. He always chose to send it by express, because the rates were higher and it would cost Morton more. Attached under the needle of every machine thus returned was a placard with the words: 'P. R. Morton: How much bonds do you require?' Smith claims his arrest is spite work and threatens to sue Morton for damages. Morton will endeavor to show that Smith and one D. O. White secured a Singer machine at Enumclaw, sold it, and converted the money to their own use.
“Attached under the needle of every machine thus returned was a placard on which was written in flaring letters: 'P. R. Morton: How much bonds do you require?'”
This petty corporate feud highlights the aggressive, often cutthroat nature of 19th-century sales culture, where agents were personally liable for inventory and bonds. Today's gig economy and commission-based sales roles still see similar tensions between workers and management, though modern labor laws have thankfully replaced these types of vindictive legal battles.
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