The Bartender’s Vengeance
A Seattle saloon worker opens fire on his boss after a wage dispute, highlighting the volatility of 1888 labor-management relations.
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.
J. H. Nickum, a bartender at the Alki Saloon, made a vain attempt yesterday to take the life of his employer, James Myers. For several weeks, Nickum had been out of work, and Myers had offered him a job. However, Nickum became agitated when Myers failed to pay him the wages he claimed were owed. A struggle ensued at the Alki, where Nickum fired a pistol at Myers. Myers was hit but not killed, while Nickum was quickly arrested by authorities. When questioned, Nickum showed little remorse, claiming he only intended to scare his employer after being swindled out of his hard-earned pay. He remains in custody at the city jail, awaiting further legal proceedings.
“I held the pistol at the floor and it went off. I wanted to show him that I had a pistol so I took it out.”
While this was a personal dispute between a worker and a saloon owner, the underlying friction regarding withheld wages and the desperation of the unemployed remains a perennial, haunting theme in Seattle’s labor history, echoing today's struggles over gig work, wage theft, and housing instability.
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