Street War at Wenatchee
A high-stakes gambling loss involving a saloon woman sparked an hours-long feud between railroad laborers and an Italian group.
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.
Trouble was started by a drunken gambler named Tom Guilland, who worked on the Great Northern grade. He frequently spent his time with an inmate of French Annie's place known as Susette. She has been living with Guiseppe Vaco, a faro dealer and a man said to have been driven from New Orleans for his part in the Mafia murders. After Guilland won $5,000 from Vaco’s bank, he attempted to take Susette away. A dozen Italians surrounded them; Guilland fought back, but a band of graders rushed to his rescue. Vaco gave a peculiar whistle and the street was filled with Italians armed with knives, clubs, and stones. The railroaders gathered, retreating slowly while firing. For three hours, the two factions fought until the Italians were defeated. Both parties eventually broke up into small bands and fled by dawn.
“Vaco gave a peculiar whistle and in a moment the street was filled with Italians, some of them but half-dressed, and armed with knives, clubs and stones.”
This violent episode highlights the volatile mix of migrant labor, dangerous working conditions, and lawlessness in boomtowns during the expansion of the Great Northern Railway. It also captures the era’s xenophobic shorthand for immigrant conflict.
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