The North Bend Punch-Up
A grudge match between two former partners leads to a brawl and a trip to court.
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.
Washington Johnson, who was brought back to this city from Mandan, S.D., on the charge of cheating his partner, Edward O'Melia, out of about $170 and who was turned loose at a preliminary hearing, was in consultation with Attorney Sims yesterday about getting a warrant for O'Melia. It was not a case of cheating this time, just a plain out-and-out case of 'licking.' Johnson, it appears, went to North Bend to get some personal effects and met O'Melia. A conversation ensued which had the old case for a basis. Finally O'Melia, it is claimed, punched Johnson. Then a clinch followed, during which Johnson, the smaller man, went down, and before he got up received a good mauling. Sims said he would apply today for a warrant charging O'Melia with assault and battery.
“It was not a case of cheating this time, just a plain out-and-out case of 'licking.'”
Fights between former business partners are a timeless feature of the city's commercial history, though today such disputes are more likely to be settled in civil court than with a 'mauling' in North Bend. This story captures the rugged, personal nature of early Seattle business conflicts where professional grievances often dissolved into physical altercations.
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