Brutal Assault Outside City Hall
A man is left in a stupor after a vicious attack by a suspect who claims his victim stole his wages while he slept in the immigrant house.
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 brutal attack, which may have a fatal termination, was made by John Welch Wednesday on a stranger, whose name is supposed to be George MacIntyre. Welch went up to MacIntyre, who was standing near the city hall, and after making some remark knocked him down with a blow in the face and then jumped on him with his heavy shoes. MacIntyre has been in a stupor ever since and County Physician Taft believes he is suffering from concussion of the brain. Welch was arrested and bound over to the superior court. He makes no denial, but gives as a reason for the assault that he was relieved of $7 while sleeping off the effects of bad whisky in the immigrant house, and MacIntyre was afterwards pointed out to him as the person who had committed the theft.
“Welch... gives as a reason for the assault that he was relieved of $7 while sleeping off the effects of bad whisky.”
This incident highlights the precarious lives of transient workers in 1890s Yakima, often forced into communal 'immigrant houses' where theft was common and violence often substituted for legal recourse.
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