A Dance-Hall Manager, a Terrible Beating, and the Midnight Train to Montana
Newport police only learned of the assault after the man had already boarded a midnight train out of town — and the paper's whole account turns on that gap.
A resident of the South Side, who has recently been a manager of one of the dance halls in Old Town, made his getaway on a midnight train on Tuesday night. The man had lost his position at the dance hall and had removed to a location on the South Side with his woman. Trouble arose between the couple Monday, and the man gave the woman a terrible beating. The case was not reported to the local police until a short time after the man had departed. He is believed to have gone to some Montana point.
“The case was not reported to the local police until a short time after the man had departed. He is believed to have gone to some Montana point.”
In 1909 the police learned of a beating only after the man's train had cleared the depot — domestic violence was a private matter with a public lag. Modern protective-order systems exist precisely to close that gap, and advocates still describe the same race between a victim's report and an abuser's exit from town.
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