The Cripple’s Revenge at Port Gamble
After enduring a vicious beating by a mill-hand at a Port Gamble mill, a worker with a disabled arm exacted a bloody retribution.
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.
The shooting affray at Port Gamble reported in yesterday’s issue is learned to be less serious than was at first supposed, the victim not being mortally wounded. The two parties to the affray were John Proctor and Peter Constadt, employees of the mill company. The trouble between them commenced last Friday evening in the saw house, by Proctor throwing a biscuit at Constadt in sport. The biscuit hit Constadt on the arm, and he responded to Proctor’s jest by applying a vile epithet to him. Then Proctor jumped across the table and gave Constadt, who has a crippled arm, a severe beating before the boys could drag him away. Constadt, after the fight, swore vengeance upon his assailant and said that even if he was the smaller man and a cripple, he would get even with him. The next day he went to the company store and tried to buy a pistol, but after threats had been made so openly that they would not sell him one. Then he came to Seattle and bought a new revolver. On the trip back to Port Gamble he showed the weapon to several parties on the boat and said that it made him as big as the man that had whipped him. Yesterday afternoon he met his enemy in the house provided as a lounging place for the mill boys and known as the reading room. He first taunted him with having whipped a cripple and then pulled his revolver and shot. The bullet struck Proctor in the thigh and ranged downward, striking the bone. He bled profusely and it was thought for a time that the wound was mortal. Prompt surgical treatment, however, succeeded in stopping the flow of blood, and it is hardly probable that Proctor will die, although he may lose the limb. Constadt was arrested without any trouble and lodged in jail. Prosecuting Attorney Moore arrived at Port Gamble on the steamer Edith early yesterday morning. At 9 o’clock Constadt was brought before Justice Hiram Platt for preliminary examination. He waived an examination and was bound over to await the action of the grand jury of Kitsap county. In default of bail, he was committed to the county jail of Kitsap county. The mill men are divided in opinion regarding the shooting; some say that Proctor acted badly and deserved what he got for beating a cripple, while others say that Constadt took advantage of his infirmity to shoot him, and that Proctor had enough punishment from the beating and had no reason for shooting him.
“Constadt, after the fight, swore vengeance upon his assailant and said that even if he was the smaller man and a cripple, he would get even with him.”
Workplace power dynamics and the culture of violence within isolated industrial settings remain a recurring theme in Washington’s labor history. This story highlights how perceived lack of agency—exacerbated by physical disability and bullying—drove a worker to seek justice outside the law, a pattern of social volatility that still resonates in the tensions of the modern workforce.
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