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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 13 |
| 1891 | 3 |
| 1892 | 10 |
| 1893 | 13 |
| 1894 | 10 |
| 1895 | 21 |
73 stories matching bread
- The Chain Gang Strikes: Bread and Water for Seattle’s Labor Rebels
When twelve men on the city's chain gang refused to work, Mayor Moran’s police chief responded with a cold diet of bread and water—and a public shaming that turned the streets into a theater of penal discipline.
- The Great Seattle Bread Strike of 1891
After decades of grueling night shifts and labor-intensive production, Seattle’s unionized bakers walk off the job to demand an eight-bucket limit and daylight hours.
- The Terrier Who Took His Bedtime Seriously
When his mistress tried to teach a pet a lesson in discipline, the dog showed he was two steps ahead.
- The Girl and the Cougar of Ferndale
A peaceful encounter between a child and a wild animal in the forests near Ferndale highlights the proximity of wilderness to the early settlements.
- 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 Dungeon Behind the Standard Theater: Inside Seattle’s Terrifying Jail
A reporter’s inspection of Marshal Hamilton’s holding cells reveals prisoners sleeping on straw in a damp basement, fed by a restaurant manager who claims their diet is 'wholesome' and identical to his paying customers'.
- The Criminalization of Unemployment
A Seattle candy maker, down on his luck during hard times, faces repeated arrest for the 'crime' of being unable to find work.
- The Chain Gang Strike: When Seattle’s Jailers Fed Rebels Bread and Water
Twelve roughs on the city's Commercial Street cleanup crew walked off the job, leaving six loyal workers to finish the job. The police response? Lock them in the darkest cells until their sentences expire.
- Bakery Workers Win Daylight Hours
Seattle bakeries reach a labor settlement to end night shifts, shifting the rhythm of the city's bread production.
- Seven-Cent Meals: Seattle's City Mission Fed Thousands in 1893
In November 1893, the Seattle City Mission served 3,049 free meals, provided 1,071 lodgings, and begged the city for underclothing as the depression deepened.
- Organizing the Industrial Army in Centralia
A local organizer makes progress recruiting for the Industrial Army despite local mockery.
- The Shoemaker of Front Street
A quiet tragedy in a small storefront captures the desperate pride of a laborer working through the final stages of illness.
- Surviving Seattle on a Shoestring
A newcomer details the precise costs of feeding a family of eight in 1890s Seattle, offering a rare glimpse into the household economics of the era.
- A Ballard Family's Desperate Winter: Five Children Crying for Bread
A sick father, a dying mother, and five hungry children in Salmon Bay Park. A stranger's dollar is all they have.
- The Tragedy of Martin Johnson
A morning in the Tacoma city jail ends in a desperate act of suicide by a man arrested for public intoxication.
- The Patent Medicine Suicide Hoax
A supposed farewell note found on Yesler Wharf turns out to be a clever, cynical advertisement for a health elixir.
- A Fatal Feast
A lonely wood chopper, accustomed to 'baching' on meager meals, succumbs to convulsions after being invited to a generous home-cooked dinner.
- Seattle’s 'Industrial Army' Mobilizes for the Capital
Unemployed men organize into companies, drill in the streets, and plan a march to Washington, D.C., to protest economic conditions.
- The Laundress's Life Savings Stolen
A young immigrant woman working in a Centralia laundry was robbed of three years' worth of wages by two men who threatened her at gunpoint.
- The Laborer’s Question
A candidate for mayor is put on the spot regarding political litmus tests for city jobs.
- The Blackmailer's Dark Hole
After smuggling contraband into his jail cell, a defiant inmate is forced into solitary confinement.
- The Tragic End of Bertha Baht
A young immigrant woman, displaced by hardship and poverty, takes her own life in the tide flats of South Seattle.
- Thomas Dolan Tried Soap and Knives to Escape Jail
A desperate inmate’s attempt to saw through the county jail's steel bars with repurposed table knives ends in a dark cell.
- Street Peddlers Defeat Seattle’s Restrictive Ordinance
A municipal court judge rules that a city ordinance banning fruit and vegetable street vendors is unconstitutional and void.
- Sunday Statistics: The War for the Soul of Seattle's Youth
Rev. Wallace Nutting takes a census of the city’s saloons and churches to prove the moral decay of young men in the West.