A Bill, a Whisky Drummer and a Brawl in Newport
A local man tried to collect an old debt from a traveling liquor salesman. The argument turned into a fistfight, and only one of them needed a doctor.
A Newport man attempted to collect a bill from a whisky drummer the other day. The drummer claimed that the bill had been paid and the Newport man asserted that it had not. A scrap followed. The drummer was the better man, or at least got the better of the argument, as the Newporter retired to a doctor's office and then returned to his home, considerably battered up.
“The drummer was the better man, or at least got the better of the argument, as the Newporter retired to a doctor's office and then returned to his home, considerably battered up.”
Debt collection is still a high-stakes business, but the traveling whisky drummer and saloon-credit culture have vanished. The item captures a time when a disputed bill could be settled with fists and a doctor’s visit—and when the papers printed the result as local color.
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