A Violent Dispute at the Windsor Hotel
A disagreement over a satchel and unpaid wages at a local hotel leads to a public fight, tearful police intervention, and a standoff.
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.
Etta Buckley, housekeeper at the Windsor hotel, corner of Commercial and Main streets, and Lilian Bateman, a former employee of the house, had a hand-to-hand contest last night about 10 o'clock over a satchel. Neither was seriously injured, but many tears were shed and great excitement prevailed in the hotel. It seems that Mrs. Bateman, with two children to support, has been working at the house for $15 a month and concluded to leave Thursday night. She got her pay late and accepted an invitation to sleep with one of the girls. In the morning she went away and sent for her trunk, but the hotel people refused to deliver it, claiming $1 due for her night's lodging. She paid the dollar and got her trunk, and the evening came for her satchel, which she had left. Miss Buckley refused to let her have the satchel, claiming that a lamp was missing and asking her what she knew about it. Mrs. Bateman is a small woman, but she insisted on having the satchel, disdaining any knowledge of the lamp, and Miss Buckley refused and the clash came. Mrs. Bateman's earrings were torn from her ears and the pain caused her eyes to water. As is the rule in conflicts between women, both commenced to shed tears, but still the struggle went on until Officer L. A. Barbee arrived on the scene and sent the principals to police headquarters.
“As is the rule in conflicts between women, both commenced to shed tears, but still the struggle went on.”
This domestic and labor dispute, occurring in the heart of the pioneer district, highlights the precarious nature of work and housing for single women in 1893. The intersection of Commercial (now First Avenue South) and Main remains a site where the struggles of vulnerable populations are still very much present.
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