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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1876 | 7 |
| 1877 | 7 |
| 1878 | 1 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 4 |
| 1884 | 3 |
| 1885 | 6 |
| 1886 | 4 |
| 1887 | 4 |
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 8 |
| 1890 | 2 |
| 1891 | 12 |
| 1892 | 15 |
| 1893 | 15 |
| 1894 | 20 |
| 1895 | 30 |
| 1898 | 3 |
| 1899 | 1 |
| 1900 | 3 |
| 1902 | 4 |
| 1903 | 10 |
| 1904 | 8 |
| 1905 | 1 |
| 1908 | 1 |
| 1909 | 4 |
| 1910 | 2 |
| 1914 | 2 |
| 1915 | 4 |
| 1916 | 1 |
| 1917 | 1 |
| 1923 | 1 |
| 1924 | 1 |
| 1928 | 1 |
30 stories matching smooth
- The Detective, the Forger, and the Silverton Fiancée
Detective Sam Sumner captures a smooth-talking con man who posed as a Northern Pacific railroad official and nearly married into a Silverton family.
- The Forger Who Called Himself 'Apache George' Dies in the County Jail
George Wendelin, a smooth-talking check passer who left Seattle firms holding worthless paper, is struck down by apoplexy before his case can go further.
- The Vice President's Cousin and the $1,000 Port Townsend Swindle
A smooth-tongued 'loan agent' traded on Adlai Stevenson's name to collect membership fees from Port Townsend's most respectable Democrats — then hid behind unreturned abstracts and 'free stock' worth $100 a share.
- Champagne for the Lobby, Despair for the Farmers
Washington's Senate kills the Helm-Morgan freight-rate bill after railroad agents work Olympia, and the state's press calls it a corporate victory over the people.
- The Bogus Missionary Who Tried to Work Seattle's Christian Endeavorers
A smooth-talking stranger claimed Moody Institute credentials and offered to split the take from a revival. Seattle's Christian Endeavor officers checked the hotels—and caught him in a web of contradictions.
- The Smooth-Talking 'Distressed Brother' Who Worked the Masons
An impostor posing as a stranded fellow Mason bilked lodges from coast to coast. Seattle's United Lodge No. 92 — whose safe was cracked last summer — believes it unknowingly armed him with the forged receipts he used to collect.
- A Counterfeiter's Conscience: How the Salvation Army Led a Seattle Man to Turn Himself In
Thomas Gorman, an iron moulder, confessed to making and passing $190 in counterfeit coin after a religious conversion, telling authorities he didn't care about jail as long as his conscience was clear.
- Two Thousand Seattleites Filed Past the Outlaw's Corpse — and Some Said It Wasn't Him
Burial is postponed while a Fremont woman insists the dead man is her friend's missing husband. The jail keys and handcuffs in his pocket say otherwise.
- An Ex-Priest Turns a Packed Seattle Hall Against the Jesuits
At Ranke's Hall, former Catholic priest J. B. Daly tells the A.P.A. that the Society of Jesus is a secret political machine—then drapes himself in the flag and leads three cheers.
- The Political Boss of the Post Office
A Washington D.C. power broker uses his influence to hand-pick postmasters and settle personal scores, leaving local aspirants trembling.
- The Iron-Jawed Worm That Ate Seattle's Wharves
At the foot of Harrison Street, the Colman family has a new weapon against the teredo worm: steam, a vacuum, and a dose of dead oil of tar.
- Three Drowned in the Columbia's Whirlpool
A Seattle official watched a small boat capsize near the mouth of the Methow, drowning two men and a woman in the roiling current.
- The Little Steamer That Ate the Sound
The Flyer ran four Seattle–Tacoma trips a day, kept to the minute through fog, and logged a record 84,000 miles in a year.
- The Body in the Hen House: An Unidentified Murder Near Eagle Harbor
A well-dressed stranger was found half-burned in an abandoned Kitsap County farmhouse, with only spectacles, a corkscrew, and a torn newspaper to say who he was.
- A Canal, a Land Subsidy, and a Former Governor’s Check
Seattle’s push to dig the Lake Washington canal got a $1,000 pledge from ex-Gov. Ferry and an offer of 160 acres near Bothell from a landowner betting on the ship canal.
- A Rockefeller Tells Seattle It Is Destined to Be the New York of the Pacific
Visiting Cleveland iron magnate F. Rockefeller—brother of John D.—says the harbor beats New York's and the ore is right here, if only the city will manufacture instead of import and steer clear of the boomers who killed Wichita.
- Tacoma’s Mayor Fires Public Works President After a Heated Exchange
David L. Demorest tells Mayor Orr he wants nothing more to do with his administration; by evening the mayor has a letter ready declaring him out of a job.
- The Boastful Prisoner Who Talked Himself Into Federal Custody
Henry C. Grady came to Seattle to pay taxes on his Jackson Street lots and to deliver a mail-fraud suspect. P. C. Pomeroy had bragged his way out of an Oregon jail; the confession sent him straight to McNeil's Island.
- The Navy Builds a Monster at Port Orchard
In 1895 the government rushed to finish the third-largest dry dock on earth on Puget Sound — a timber-and-granite pit big enough to swallow any warship afloat, and the reason Seattle's harbor would never be the same.
- The Flower Seller's Valise Held a Counterfeiter's Die
Z. M. Hawkins, who sold bouquets at Second and University, was held for trial after officers found a counterfeit dollar and a coin-making die—and a trail leading to a Mexican-dollar exchange in San Francisco.
- When Seattle's Library Ran Out of Money
A $65 February appropriation against $400 in monthly expenses forces the library commission to close the circulating department and beg city council for relief.
- Two Frozen Men Drowned Within Twenty Feet of a Rescue Line
The new Ballard schooner Lily and Maud broke up off Deception Island, and the crews of the Utopia and Justine could only watch.
- A Senate Seat, a Caucus, and a Yakima Ditch Deal
In Olympia, Republicans moved to settle the U.S. Senate contest between Ankeny and Wilson—while opponents circulated a story that Wilson had traded a Congressional favor for stock in a Yakima irrigation scheme.
- A Ten-Inch Snowstorm Buries Seattle and Stalls the Cars
The city's streetcars, telegraph wires and outlying districts struggle under a heavy January snowfall as Portland reports three feet and the weather observer warns of more to come.
- The Imaginary Mine of Seattle's Would-Be Count of Monte Cristo
A charming elderly German claimed a Mexican mine, a California ranch and a German inheritance—then paid for gifts with checks no Seattle bank would honor.