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| Year | Stories |
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| 1863 | 1 |
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40 stories matching mischiev
- The Phantom Fire-Starter of Tacoma
A mischievous prankster is repeatedly triggering false fire alarms, exhausting the local department and draining public funds.
- The Great Rat War of the Seattle Waterfront
A local commission merchant argues that poor box design is turning Seattle apple shipments into a banquet for waterfront vermin.
- The Price of Iron Rails: Fighting the Corporate Lobby
A century and a half ago, local taxpayers were urged to reject public subsidies for railroad giants, a struggle that mirrors today’s battles over public infrastructure and private gain.
- The Typographer's Lament: A Plea for Better Penmanship
A frustrated newspaper printer turns to verse to protest the illegible handwriting of contributors, whose scribbles make the typesetter’s life a living hell.
- The Boycott Handbills
After anonymous anti-Chinese handbills appear in Seattle, local laborers write to the Post-Intelligencer to clarify their role—and distance themselves from the movement.
- The Great Lemonade Deception
A courting couple tries to trick one another in the dark, but a mischievous brother gets the last laugh.
- The Terrors of Belltown: Youth Gangs and Civic Chaos in 1870
Before it was a bustling neighborhood, Belltown was a site of 'villainous' youth pranks and neighborhood disturbances that left residents clamoring for order.
- Halloween Mischief Causes Chaos in North Yakima
A night of Hallowe'en pranks spiraled into dangerous territory, leaving residents missing carriage wheels and a local man injured after a run-in with a wire trap.
- When the Heavyweight Champion Knocked Out a Seattle Logger
Before he was a legend, John L. Sullivan brought his traveling boxing exhibition to Seattle, where a boastful local logger paid a bloody price for the chance to fight the 'greatest pugilist in the world.'
- Land Speculation or Lifeline? The Fight Over Seattle’s Lake Washington Canal
Senator Squire battles Southern committee members and rumors of a land grab to keep Seattle’s canal in the federal river and harbor bill.
- Who Gets the Salmon? A Fish-Trap Bill Stirs a Fight Over Foreign Canners
A Blaine sawyer told Olympia that the Biggs fish bill would hand the Fraser River fishery to a few wealthy trap owners—and to British Columbia canners.
- The Four-Year-Old at the Heart of a Custody War
After a day of dueling accusations, Judge Humes rules that little Chester Stewart stays with his mother — and has a word for anyone who would take a child over bad language.
- The Ground-Squirrel Plague and the Bomb That Sent Them to 'Squirrel Heaven'
Whitman County farmers hoped a mysterious disease would wipe out the pests. Then came strychnine, arsenic and patented giant-powder bombs.
- The Bell in the Woods: How Seattle Built Its First University
A 34-year anniversary feature on the Territorial University: 48 laborers, $2-a-day wages, lumber from Port Blakely, and an old bell that warned ships in fog and rang for hangings.
- The Gall and Wormwood of Olympia: Tacoma’s Defeat in the Senate Race
As Washington's first U.S. Senator is chosen in a bitter legislative battle, defeated candidate Calkins' supporters cry foul, while Jefferson County delegates secure the victory for Watson Squire.