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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1882 | 1 |
| 1883 | 10 |
| 1884 | 4 |
| 1885 | 12 |
| 1886 | 6 |
| 1887 | 3 |
36 stories matching test
- Seattle's Water Pressure Passes the Fire Test
High-pressure water from a new reservoir successfully cleared the skyline in a demonstration for city officials.
- The Price of Protesting a Road
Two men learned the hard way that testing the government's authority in court cannot be done by breaking the law first.
- The Price of Falsehood in the Anti-Chinese Movement
As tensions boiled over in 1886, a Seattle newspaper called out local rabble-rousers for using blatant lies to incite hostility against Chinese residents.
- The 1885 Opium Raid on Washington Street
Constable Van Doren and the Knights of Labor descend upon Chinese opium dens in a bid to test the legality of territorial anti-smoking laws.
- The Unfulfilled Dream of a Washington Sugar Valley
A cautionary tale of failed agricultural speculation and the elusive promise of a sugar beet industry in the late 1880s.
- The Test of the Chemical Fire Extinguisher
A skeptical crowd gathers at Second and Marion to watch a new, pressurized fire-fighting contraption in action.
- The 'Aristocratic' Drunk of Commercial Street
A rowdy man’s attempt to assert his authority against a local merchant ends in a street fight and a trip to the city jail.
- The Classroom of 1885: Eyesight, Health, and the 'Teacher's Burden'
Before the era of standardized testing, Seattle educators gathered to debate the physical design of the classroom, the 'proper' seating of pupils, and the creeping dangers of nearsightedness.
- The Sound’s Secret: How Deep Waters and Giant Trees Built a City
A reprinted editorial from New York reveals why Puget Sound is the 'Mediterranean of the West,' detailing its impossible depth, massive timber resources, and the strange phenomenon of forests with only small and giant trees.
- The Violent Expulsion of Chinese Workers from Tacoma
While Seattle officials debated the law, a vigilante mob in Tacoma took matters into their own hands, forcibly ejecting Chinese residents from the city.
- The Plot to Overturn Women's Suffrage
A leaked political scheme from 1886 reveals a coordinated attempt by territorial Democrats to replace the judiciary and strip Washington women of their voting rights.
- The Sunday Saloon War: When Seattle’s Business Elite Fought for the Right to Rest
In January 1885, a heated civic battle erupted over the enforcement of Sunday closing laws, pitting the city’s liquor trade against a coalition of reformers and weary laborers.
- The Young Man Who Gave Port Townsend Water
While town officials debated for years, one enterprising citizen took matters into his own hands and built the city’s first private waterworks system.
- The Great Land Grab of 1886
A legal dispute over Northern Pacific Railroad land grants highlights the struggle between territorial settlers and the encroaching influence of transcontinental rail monopolies.
- Drunken Brawl in Walla Walla
When a rowdy group of cattle herders spent their gold with 'prodigal hand' at local saloons, they turned the street into a chaotic scene that tested the resolve of city officials.
- The Miners at Cedar River Take a Stand
When management ignored their ultimatum to discharge Chinese laborers, the miners at the Cedar River coal mines walked off the job in a confrontation that tested the limits of labor power in 1885.
- The Street Hawker's Stand Against Discriminatory Laws
When a Chinese produce seller was arrested for violating city peddling ordinances, he challenged the legality of a law targeting his livelihood all the way to the Chief Justice's chambers.
- The Price of Coal and the Cost of Living in Newcastle
As winter tightens its grip, a labor dispute at the Newcastle coal mines forces a shutdown, leaving families without work and the community in crisis.
- The Battle Over Snohoish County Timber Land
A definitive government ruling reshapes the future of land rights in Washington Territory.
- Seattle's First Electric Streetcar Test
An experimental electric motor pulls a coach with thirty passengers up a steep incline in a successful trial run.
- The Unintended Migrant: An International Diplomatic Headache
When a destitute man seeking work was deported from Washington back to British Columbia, he sparked a minor diplomatic crisis that tested the porous borders of the Pacific Northwest.
- The Express War on the Tracks
A legal showdown in Seattle tests whether a major railway can unilaterally terminate its contract with an express service.
- The Defiant Board of Registration
When the Supreme Court of Washington Territory ruled against women’s suffrage in 1887, Seattle officials openly revolted, ordering women to register for the upcoming city election anyway.
- The Struggle for Water in the High Desert
While Washington’s coastal regions flourished, homesteaders in the arid eastern interior were driven to desperation by the failure of deep-well drilling in Douglas County.
- Henry Villard’s Hotel Test: Seattle Wins the Coast’s Comfort Race
A railroad magnate’s refusal to overnight in Portland’s bad hotels becomes a Seattle booster’s proof that first-class accommodations were a competitive weapon.