FIERY NEWSPAPER EDITOR CLOBBERS RAILWAY BIGWIG
Houston’s newsroom dust-up prompted by critical article of the CPR
In 1896, John Houston of the Nelson Tribune wrote an article alleging the Canadian Pacific Railway ’s traffic and operating divisions were “on the outs.”
According to Houston, the traffic division “know that Kootenay (mines) produce more tonnage than any other section of the province,” but were being stymied by the operating division, which was being run by men “who are more interested in townsite schemes and in the success of interconnecting lines than in the success of the road they manage.”
The CPR’s assistant superintendent, Richard Marpole, wasn’t amused. On Feb. 22, he showed up at The Tribune’s office with two CPR administrators, which may have been an attempt to intimidate Houston.
If it was, it didn’t work. “Marpole said the (article) was a lie and the man who wrote it was a liar,” said a Feb. 22, 1896, story in the Nelson Miner.
“Houston said: ‘If you came in here to have a row, get out of my office.’ He had a heavy ruler in his hand, and rising from his seat, struck Marpole across the head, cutting the scalp open.
“He was aiming another blow when one of (Marpole’s companions) caught his wrist and the ruler hit Marpole in the eye, inflicting a nasty wound.”
The Vancouver World picked up the story.
“Finding himself baffled in his blind fury, Mr. Houston seized Mr. Marpole by the throat and also managed to get his teeth into (Marpole’s) hand and nearly chewed off the end of his finger. In this predicament, with his right hand still firmly held by his assailant’s teeth, Mr. Marpole seized scissors as the only means of defending himself. These, however, were taken off him and Mr. Houston was dragged off.
“All the CPR men were wounded, Mr. Marpole so badly he had to go at once to a surgeon who put four stitches into his head and dressed his wounded finger.”
Houston was arrested and given a $10 fine. But his brouhaha with the CPR bigwigs seems to have impressed the locals, because in 1897 he was elected Nelson’s first mayor. He would be re-elected three times, although he lost twice. He took his combative ways to Victoria, when he was elected to the provincial legislature in 1900 and 1903.
In 1900, he came out on the losing end of a fist fight with future B.C. premier Simon Fraser Tolmie. In 1902, he had the legislature in an uproar when he got drunk and refused to take his seat after he was denied a point of order by the Speaker.
“He doggedly held the floor, declaring that he cared not for the Speaker or anybody else, and defied the Speaker to eject him, maintaining this attitude for nearly half-an-hour,” The World reported on May 6, 1902.
The Speaker declined to have him thrown out, because Houston’s support was key to Premier James Dunsmuir staying in power. But his antics were no doubt why Houston never became a member of any provincial cabinet.
Born in Peel County, Ont., in November 1850, Houston left Canada at age 14 to apprentice at a print shop in Chicago. For the next two decades he wandered around the U.S. as a “tramp printer,” picking up jobs here and there before moving on.
In 1887, he returned to Canada, where he became a reporter for The Calgary Herald. In 1888, he moved to Donald and started a newspaper, The Truth. A year later, he moved The Truth to New Westminster and a year after that he relocated to Nelson, where he founded The Miner.
He would start several more newspapers, including The Nelson Tribune, The Rossland Miner, The Prince Rupert Empire and The Fort George Tribune. He died of pneumonia in Quesnel on March 8, 1910, at age 59. The Province thought he had died four days earlier, and ran an obituary. So he sent in a letter to the editor.
“I didn’t know I was dead until your paper came out and even then I might have questioned the accuracy of the information if I hadn’t known its reliability,” said Houston. “Don’t be putting in any correction — I’ll make good on the story.”