Six Italians Escaped a Shanghai Trap on the Port Townsend Waterfront

Antonio Nero, Venturo Munto, Gabriele Tiano, Giovanni Tiano, Benedillo Selriello and J. Pasquale were about as mad a lot of Italians as could be found yesterday afternoon over what they think was a bold plan to shanghai them to Port Townsend through the efforts of certain men in this city. The cases have been placed in the hands of John Dadd, and if it is possible to get a case against the alleged conspirators it will be done. Antonio Nero, who speaks good English, tells the following story of the affair: "We were all living at the Columbus house, on Washington street, when Biddy Doyle, alias John Dangler, came to us and said he wanted to get six men to go to Port Townsend to work for 40 cents an hour unloading a vessel. He did not give the name of the ship, but we understood she was at the wharf. Last Monday night he took us down to the Rosalie and put us on board, paying our passage. After we reached Townsend I asked some of the people around the wharves what we had come for; they told us we had better get out or we would be shanghaied. There was no ship unloading, but about half a mile out was an Italian ship that was going to South America. I had a letter from Dangler in Seattle to T. J. Newman, Latona hotel, Port Townsend, who was supposed to be after that errand. Well, we went to him and commenced to ask questions he did not like. Then he opened the letter, and after reading it tore it into little pieces. Newman said that he had sent to Seattle for sailors, not laborers, and he didn't want anything to do with us. I told him I thought he ought to give us enough money to get back to Seattle, but he would not do it, and for that matter refused to give us enough to get a meal. We had to pay our own way back to Seattle, and now if there is any way to get at these men by law we are going to do it."