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54 stories matching delus
- The Tale of the Leschi Park 'Baby Seal'
A local newspaper mistakenly reports the birth of a sea lion pup at Leschi Park, but local fishermen reveal they actually caught a stray baby seal elsewhere and dropped it in the tank.
- The King of California: An Institutionalized Dreamer
A laborer from Enumclaw with grand delusions of immense wealth and heavenly status is committed to the asylum at Steilacoom.
- The Porch Gold Delusion
A man is committed to an asylum after terrorizing a South Seattle family over a phantom treasure he believed was buried under their porch.
- The Sting That Toppled a Representative
When Washington state lawmaker John L. Metcalfe accepted a bribe to expose corruption, the legislature responded by trying to expel him instead of the briber.
- The Thankless Grind of Seattle’s Territorial Delegate
In 1877, Judge Jacobs faced a barrage of local criticism for his D.C. lobbying efforts—a precursor to the modern frustrations of representing a growing, isolated Northwest in the halls of federal power.
- Spokane Rises Against a Senate Machine
Thousands of Spokane voters and organized labor protest John L. Wilson's election to the U.S. Senate, warning Olympia that the people will not pay for a machine's contracts.
- The Railway Bribe: Why Editors Shouldn't Take Free Rides
An editorial critique on how railroad corporations use free travel passes to compromise the independence of public officials and journalists.
- The Ghost of the 1873 Crash Still Haunts Seattle
As the Seattle Weekly Dispatch reflects on the long, agonizing economic recovery from the Panic of 1873, the parallels to our modern housing and labor struggles reveal a century-old cycle of debt and instability.
- The Tragedy at the Salvation Army Barracks
A dedicated Salvation Army captain is murdered in Spokane by a rejected suitor who then takes his own life.
- The Political Economy of 'Free Silver'
An editorial critique of the Populist push for silver currency, warning that inflation would only devastate the working class.
- The Boomtown Delusion of Port Townsend
In the late 1880s, Port Townsend boosters scrambled to convince the world that their city was destined to be the 'Frisco' of the Pacific Northwest.
- The Perilous Path to Nowhere
A survey team's disastrous expedition into the Cascades exposes the grand delusions of railroad barons chasing land grants.
- The Cosmic Illusion at the Seattle Theatre
A scientific lecture turned spectacular, the 'Urania' show brings the moon and the stars to downtown Seattle through the magic of electricity and stagecraft.
- A Widow Paid Her Dues. The Society Had $30 Left.
A Seattle-based benefit order collapsed after a member died in North Yakima, leaving his widow to chase $1,000 through a vanished organizer and an empty treasury.
- The Temperance Debate That Rocked Seattle
A fiery, hours-long confrontation at the Woman's Christian Temperance Union convention reveals a deep divide between pragmatists and extremists.
- The 'Pompous Autocrat' of the Sound
A Seattle newspaper lashes out at a revenue cutter captain who refused to aid a vessel in distress, claiming his uniform shouldn't be 'rubbed the wrong way.'
- Anacortes Mayor Quits in Protest Against 'Subsidy Brokers'
A.P. Sharpstein steps down, accusing the city's powerful corporate interests of stifling growth and ignoring the needs of local citizens.
- The Independent Candidate Who Fought the Party Machine
After suffering a broken arm, a local editor decries the 'spoils system' and the grip of party caucuses over Washington Territory's first constitutional process.
- The Blue Glass Delusion
A local man's obsession with the 'blue glass' health craze leads to a domestic disaster involving laundry bluing and a very angry wife.
- The Drunken Lawyer Who Kept Coming Home to Jail
Ross Hogan paraded Second Street with a tattered parasol, asked strangers for birthday quarters, and spent his mother's train fare on whisky.
- The Man Who Bought a Pile-Driven Mind
A Seattle laborer’s sudden descent into delusion—claiming he lost $5,000 to a ghost and that neighbors were plotting his murder—leaves the court baffled and his family terrified.
- The Water Monopoly Standing Between Yakima and Its Best Orchards
A fruit grower warns that the Washington Irrigation Company’s control of reservoir sites could block the high-line ditch needed to open Yakima County’s frost-safe uplands to orchards.
- The Gold Rush That Never Was: Walla Walla’s Delusion of Wealth
In January 1889, a local paper in Walla Walla, Washington, published an ecstatic report claiming the city was awash in gold dust and twenty-dollar pieces, comparing its prosperity to the heyday of the Salmon River mines. It was a stark contrast to the reality of a region still recovering from economic busts.
- The Man Who Thought He Owned Seattle Died Chasing a Ghost Fortune
Henry Zechow spent nine years and a small army of lawyers trying to claim an uncle's imaginary empire—including a block of downtown Seattle—before his body turned up in the Fraser River.
- The General and the Missing Military Money
A Senate committee says Washington's adjutant general ran the militia like a personal fiefdom, blew through his appropriation and left the state with a military deficiency.