Got Two Years
– Eau Claire Weekly Telegram | November 9, 1891

John Doyle, the tramp, who cut and carved John McDonald, a companion he had met at Hudson, pleaded guilty before Judge Larson yesterday of assault, with intent to do great bodily harm, and was given two years in Waupun. Doyle and McDonald got into a row at Altoona on Oct. 19, over a slice of bread- a “hand-out,” and Doyle took his friend by the neck, drew a razor and carved him in great fashion, cutting his nose, neck, face and gutting one eye out. He was arrested in this city for vagrancy the night before the cutting and discharged.

Chad's Take: Piece of bread costs two years.

As I tune into to NPR for my daily dose of bad economic news, I wonder just how bad things might actually get. Yet I am filled with hope when I read stories like this one. One of my favorite parts of digging through all the old newspapers is that it gives you a better perspective on events that are taking right now and while jobs are evaporating, unemployment is very high, and the banks are in trouble, at least no one is gutting their friends over a piece of bread. (Well not yet anyway).  

I was really curious about where this altercation took place. I was hoping that the saloon would have been listed in the article so I could see if the building is still standing today. I was able to track down an article on the fight that appeared in the October 22 edition of the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern that stated that the two men fought in a vacant lot in Altoona. Unfortunately no address was given and the exact spot where this took place still remains a mystery.