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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1862 | 1 |
| 1876 | 8 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1878 | 3 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 3 |
| 1884 | 1 |
| 1885 | 6 |
| 1886 | 4 |
| 1887 | 3 |
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 5 |
| 1891 | 6 |
| 1892 | 7 |
| 1893 | 12 |
| 1894 | 10 |
| 1895 | 8 |
| 1899 | 3 |
| 1903 | 5 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1908 | 2 |
| 1909 | 3 |
| 1910 | 2 |
| 1912 | 2 |
| 1915 | 1 |
| 1916 | 2 |
| 1917 | 1 |
105 stories matching rag
- The Integrity Test of 1876
A young dressmaker, struggling against the poverty of pioneer-era Seattle, faces a life-changing moral dilemma when she discovers a hidden fortune in an old waistcoat.
- The Great Seattle Fire: A Military Account of the Ruins
Colonel Haines recounts the chaos, the failed efforts to contain the 1889 fire with explosives, and the deployment of the National Guard to maintain order amidst the ashes.
- The Old Union Flag
A group of Seattle schoolboys preparing for a dance discovered a historic, weather-beaten Union flag—triggering a local effort to preserve the banner that once flew over the Civil War-era Union League.
- The Editor Who Told the Populists to Cancel Their Subscriptions
A small-town Washington editor refuses to let a secret Populist club run the Fourth of July, and invites any reader who disagrees to stop his paper.
- The Miracle of the Daily Paper: How Pullman’s New Herald Brings the World to Your Doorstep
In its inaugural editorial, the newly launched *Pullman Herald* reflects on the alchemy of journalism—transforming rags into news—and celebrates the fertile wheat lands of the Palouse.
- A Coxey Marcher's Family Left Destitute in Seattle
Two barefoot girls beg police for food after their father joins the industrial army marching on Washington and their mother is left unable to work.
- The Man Who Wouldn't Die: A Seattle Gallows Horror
In a gruesome spectacle that shook the young Territory of Washington, Francis Epps survived his own hanging by mere inches, crying for mercy as the crowd watched him dangle in agony before being cut down.
- A Mother, a Child, and a Cold Shack Off Albert Street
A police officer's dollar leads Superintendent Gilmer to a family with no food, no furniture and no shoes—and to a quiet rescue before the county takes over.
- A Seattle Butcher Beat the Drunkard’s Label and Kept His Estate
A Gilded Age guardianship trial asked whether John Murphy’s drinking made him unfit to manage his own affairs. The jury said no—and his rags-to-property story came out in court.
- The Asylum Ward’s Unseen Hunger
A patient describes the grueling conditions inside a Seattle insane asylum, where the sick are fed wormy prunes and bread meant for the refuse pile, while robust workers with influence dine on fresh milk.
- The Brutal Work of Boring Stampede Tunnel
Deep in the Cascades, a reporter documents the grueling labor conditions of the men carving the Northern Pacific’s Stampede Tunnel through the mountain’s gut.
- The Shocking Case of the Napping Keeper
A Seattle hospital patient, presumed to be suffering from narcotic poisoning, is jolted back to 'life' by a doctor’s electric battery—only for the doctors to realize they had the wrong man.
- A Tacoma Shooting Unravels an Elopement
Albert McAchren shot his wife, tried to shoot her daughter, and turned the gun on himself. As she lingers, a friend describes the couple’s flight from Fidalgo.
- Twenty-Five-Year-Old Stakes in the Monte Cristo Wilderness
Joe Pearsell, the prospector who opened the Monte Cristo mines, describes finding faded red survey stakes and 1850s sluice boxes in a country so savage he thinks it will only be tamed by tourists once the railroad arrives.
- Whitman's Freshman Flag Raid Ended With a Presidential Sermon on Anarchy
A Sophomore rush on the Memorial Building tower broke glass and plaster—prompting President Penrose to suspend the flag contest and lecture students on class spirit, property and citizenship.
- The Great Wire War: How Seattle’s Electric Giants Tried to Buy Their Way Out of the Underground
When the City Council threatened to bury power lines underground, Union Electric and Consumers’ Electric screamed ruin. But the real drama wasn't the wires—it was the council dodging a crowd of gamblers and churchgoers demanding saloon closures.
- The Man Who Found Gold on the McMillan
C.P. Osborne returns from the Yukon with tales of rich placer deposits and starving travelers, predicting a new gold rush rivaling Klondike.
- The Christmas Dinner That Filled a Seattle Hall With 275 Children
At the Salvation Army barracks, donated roast beef, candy bags and two tinsel trees gave waterfront and hillside children a holiday feast in 1893.
- The Original Miners: How Native Americans Discovered the Metaline's Lead Riches
Long before white prospectors staked claims, Indigenous people mined lead in the Metaline region to make bullets and slugs—and their ancient workings still dot the landscape.
- King County Democrats Begged for Mercy on the Lake Washington Canal
At the 1892 state Democratic convention, Seattle's delegates surrendered their instructions and let Pierce County humiliate them over the canal project—a defeat the Post-Intelligencer vowed voters would remember in November.
- Seattle’s Fire Department Answered 197 Alarms in 1893 — Nearly Half Were False
The chief’s annual report counted 98 false alarms, touted small losses, and asked the city for a fire marshal and better alarm wires.
- The Fruit Broker Who Shipped Bananas to the Arctic—and Planned to Make His Employees Co-Owners
J. B. Powles buys out Seattle's oldest commission house, revealing a rags-to-fortune run built on produce, Alaska trade and an unusual plan to share ownership with his workers.
- The Burglar Who Wanted a Razor Before Walla Walla
Richard H. Ford, a self-styled 'famous burglar' with a morphine habit, was shipped off to the state penitentiary—after begging for a shave and trying to dig through the jail floor.
- A Monster A.P.A. Rally for the Public Schools
At Ranke’s Hall, Rev. W. T. Fleenor told a packed Seattle crowd that American schools must stay free of church control—and the room roared.
- There's "Dough" in Every Street Contract: A Preacher Takes On City Hall
Rev. Napoleon Hoagland reads the nation's municipal record aloud — reeking streets, a million-dollar franchise given away, councilmen who elsewhere would count themselves lucky to stay out of prison — and asks why democratic America breeds more thieves than the Tsar's Europe.