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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 3 |
| 1889 | 3 |
| 1891 | 2 |
| 1893 | 7 |
| 1894 | 6 |
| 1895 | 14 |
35 stories matching complexion
- The Opium Ring That Terrified the Sound
A dark-complexioned gentleman with a sloop and a mission is dismantling smuggling rings in Puget Sound, proving that federal authority was reaching even the remote corners of Washington Territory.
- The Second-Hand Struggle
A thief attempts to sell stolen goods back to the store he just robbed, leading to a street-level brawl and a quick arrest.
- The Olympic Block Sting
An unsuspecting man loses his gold to a woman he met in a downtown hotel hallway.
- A Desperate Escape in a Boarding House
After years of alleged domestic abuse, a young woman in a Third Avenue boarding house attempts to end her life.
- A Forged Check Leads to a Hotel-Room Arrest
A bogus $7.50 check at a Columbia Street drugstore unravels into cocaine, morphine and a man who may have been the "Henry" on the signature.
- Search Underway for Missing Sailor L.P. Peterson
Friends have reported L.P. Peterson missing after he was last seen at a saloon on Jackson Street.
- A Belfast Wife's Letter: Find My Husband in Seattle
Martha Bateson last heard from her husband in 1888. Now she has written Seattle's police chief, hoping someone recognizes a tall, fair wood turner who once sent money home.
- A Backroom Vote Redraws Tacoma's First Ward
Tacoma Republicans reverse the base for municipal convention apportionment, threatening Council President Harris and the Wickersham faction's grip on the First Ward.
- Navigating the Geary Act
In the shadow of restrictive federal laws, local Chinese residents navigate the bureaucratic maze of registration with the help of a witness.
- The Clerk Who Stole His Boss’s Fortune to Gamble Away
Leander Miller returns from a political trip in Olympia to find his confidential clerk, J.H. Corcoran, has drained his accounts through gambling debts.
- The 'Cast Iron' Registration of Chinese Residents
New, highly restrictive federal regulations under the Geary Act require Chinese laborers to register with the government, using photographs for 'complete identification.'
- A Woman’s Desperate Escape on the Puget Sound
After her husband announced a warrant for her arrest on the Seattle-bound steamer, a woman attempted to jump overboard into the sound.
- A Newborn Found in a Basket Under a Tacoma Cemetery Bridge
A coroner's grim morning in 1895: an abandoned infant discovered in Oakland Cemetery, wrapped in a lady's undervest and calico, with no clue to its mother.
- The Battle for the City's Official News Contract
A political struggle unfolds at City Hall as the board of aldermen chooses official newspapers based on partisanship rather than price.
- A Mill Worker Vanishes, Leaving a Stamped Letter and a Shanghaiing Theory
J. R. Flack left his Tacoma room without his clothes or wages. His boss at Wheeler, Osgood & Co. suspects the former sailor was “shanghaied” aboard a vessel.
- The Secrets of Seattle’s Beauty Parlors
Behind the storefronts of 1889 Seattle, women entrepreneurs were building empires of vanity and wellness, one manicure at a time.
- A Public Separation on the Courthouse Steps
A Tacoma couple’s attempt to end their marriage in Seattle ends in a public spectacle of incompatibility.
- The Disappearing Mill Owner
A Lewis County lumberman vanishes after a devastating factory fire, leaving his brothers to search for him in a desperate, cross-state manhunt.
- The Great Snoqualmie Adventure: A Victorian Weekend Outing
A group of Seattle elites and their spirited guide, 'Mac,' trek into the wilderness to discover if the legends of Snoqualmie Falls and the local fishing are truly as grand as promised.
- Seattle's Night-Owl Law Couldn't Make a Man Explain Himself
A police-court ruling struck down the city's after-hours suspicion ordinance — after a red-haired stranger from New Westminster wandered into a Bell apartment house looking for a fire.
- The Unlucky Look-Alike
A case of mistaken identity in a Seattle courtroom saw an innocent man nearly extradited for a Pennsylvania forgery because he looked exactly like his cousin.
- The Smooth-Talking 'Distressed Brother' Who Worked the Masons
An impostor posing as a stranded fellow Mason bilked lodges from coast to coast. Seattle's United Lodge No. 92 — whose safe was cracked last summer — believes it unknowingly armed him with the forged receipts he used to collect.
- The Dealer in the Gambling Den
In the rowdy timber town of Sedro-Woolley, the local gamblers have found a unique way to keep the peace: replacing the standard rough-hewn card shark with a captivating young woman.
- Tacoma Voters Hand the Mayor a Council — and Unlock the Water Fund
A rain-soaked municipal election gives Tacoma's administration a working majority and lets the city redirect money from springs judged inadequate.
- A Million-Dollar Land Grab and the Wife Left Behind
Abandoned for ten years in Pennsylvania, Mrs. J. E. Jordan comes to Seattle's superior court to stop her husband from deeding away the community's real estate to a medicine company — and names the men who helped him do it.
Also about this, in other words
- The Aristocracy of Skin
An editorial reflection on the prevalence of racial prejudice in the North and the exclusion of Black students and congregants from 'civilized' institutions.