The $163 Bender: How a Saloon Owner Allegedly Drunk a Laborer Out of His Wages
Andrew Gilberg says Frank Lindquist, former owner of the Mint saloon, plied him with whisky for days until he signed away a $163 labor claim for $17—then put him on a train to Ballard.
Frank Lindquist, formerly owner of the Mint saloon, is placed in an unfavorable light by a reply in the suit against him by Andrew Gilberg, who is trying to recover $163 on a claim for labor performed. The complaint was filed February 11, and February 27 Lindquist answered setting up a release dated February 28, 1893, whereby Gilberg compromised the claim for $17. Now Gilberg, who contends he is addicted to excessive use of liquor, says he was enticed by Lindquist into the latter's place, on the plea that he wanted to talk over old times and former acquaintances.
Once within, Gilberg was in the saloon. Lindquist is said to have plied him with numerous drinks of whisky, beer and other intoxicants, without charge, until the victim was thrown into a state of absolute intoxication, bereft of reason, and wholly incapable of comprehending the results of his actions, with a total loss of memory and wholly incapacitated from transacting a contract. Further, Gilberg says, he is unable to read or write, and that if the stipulation set up by Lindquist was given, it was secured through fraud.
He says he was kept drunk for two or three days, and has no recollection of anything that took place on February 28. He is informed that Lindquist, taking a number of pint bottles of whisky into his pocket, placed him aboard a Great Northern train and accompanied him as far as Ballard. He asks that the pretended release be held for naught, and that he recover for his labor claim.
“He says he was kept drunk for two or three days, and has no recollection of anything that took place on February 28.”
Wage theft and exploitation of vulnerable workers are still with us, though the methods have changed. Gilberg’s story—an illiterate laborer allegedly drunk into signing away his claim—reads as a Gilded Age cautionary tale about how easy it was for employers and saloonkeepers to turn a man’s paycheck into their own.
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