The Ludlow Saloon Shield: How a Mill Worker’s Beating Was Ignored by the Law
In Port Gamble, Washington Territory, a brutal assault on an edgerman was dismissed by a local justice of the peace, leaving the victim powerless against his attacker in a display of judicial indifference.
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.
A bully named Riley assaulted Mr. James Humphrey, an edgerman in the new mill, on Friday night last, and severely bruised him. Mr. H. swore out a warrant before the Justice of the Peace, Geo. W. Dwelly, Esq., but the gentlemanly usher of the mad-house denied the mandate of the law, and put, or rather 'lit out,' for Ludlow.
After he had departed, a special constable was dispatched after him, and as the said constable walked out one door of the Ludlow Saloon, the bold 'Riley' walked in at the other. The Constable appeared in Gamble last evening without his man. 'The armament of the officer was not formidable enough to stand the antic police charge of Riley—the detective wanted navy shooters, making holes through which you could sling a dog; he had used them often.' Such was the nature of the 'Ye bossifers' speech, on his return, in front of the cook house, to an excited populace.
But Riley is basking in the sunlight of real felicity at Ludlow, while the innocent sufferer and the majesty of the law are in statu-quo—powerless either for good or evil.
This 1876 account from Port Gamble highlights a persistent tension in labor communities: the feeling that local authorities protect business interests or social hierarchies over the safety of workers. The 'edgerman' (a skilled mill worker) was left without recourse because the Justice of the Peace effectively sided with the aggressor, a dynamic that echoes modern debates about police accountability and access to justice in industrial towns.
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