Rumors of Lynching Debunked at Monte Cristo
A railroad contractor denies reports of violence against immigrant workers, highlighting the tension between the press and laborers.
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.
P. F. Smith, the railroad contractor who came to the city yesterday from Monte Cristo, brought a last complete and emphatic denial of the reported lynching of four Italians. 'The affair is supposed to have happened in my camp of workmen,' said he, 'and I ought to know something about it. The story was made up out of whole cloth. There has been nothing remotely resembling a disturbance. We have in the camp about 470 Italians, against forty or fifty of other nations; and it is ridiculous to suppose that they would stand calmly by and see a small minority of the gang lynch their countrymen. I intend to find out who started the story on its rounds.'
“The story was made up out of whole cloth.”
False reports of violence against immigrant workers in the late 19th century were frequently used to stir up nativist sentiment. This brief correction reveals both the vulnerability of immigrant laborers at the time and the power of individual contractors to manipulate the narrative of workplace stability.
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