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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1888 | 2 |
| 1889 | 8 |
| 1891 | 1 |
| 1893 | 3 |
| 1894 | 6 |
| 1895 | 6 |
26 stories matching straw
- The Counterfeit 'Rye Straw' Cigar Scam
Tobacco merchants discover a deceptive new counterfeit cigar wrapper made of chemically treated rye straw.
- The Mayor's Hat Scandal
Snohomish citizens stage a humorous protest when the Mayor ditches his traditional straw hat for the season.
- The Collapse of the Merchants' National
Tacoma bank officials indicted on charges of false entry and 'straw paper' schemes amid a brutal city-wide financial rivalry.
- The Strange Lottery of Seattle’s 1889 Democratic Primary
While Republicans held conventional district conventions to nominate candidates for the constitutional convention, Seattle’s Democrats opted for the 'novel' method of picking delegates by lottery.
- Centenarian tribal elder killed by train in Spokane
A historic figure known as 'Indian Tom' is struck by a switch engine at a crossing.
- A Night of Whist and Crokignole in 1889 Seattle
A surprise party for Miss Fannie McKay at her family home on Fourth and Yesler offers a glimpse into the parlor social life of early Seattle.
- The Union Man in the White Suit Walked Into Jail
After the 1894 railroad strike, Northern Pacific committeeman Charles A. Barnes lost his bondsmen and surrendered in a canvas suit and straw hat, telling the marshal, 'Here is my body.'
- The Miracle Hen of the Barn
A farmer reports an astonishing, if scientifically questionable, account of a hen surviving over a month without food or water.
- 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 Tragedy of a Matrimonial Paper Marriage
A farmer is arrested after a horrific, confessed murder of his wife, a woman he met through a matrimonial advertisement just a year prior.
- The Phantom Section Hands of the Northern Pacific
A roadmaster at Cle Elum is arrested for padding six railroad crews with fictitious workers—until a foreman’s conscience, and the auditors, caught up with him.
- A Dance-Hall Fight, a Choked Woman, and a Suspended Sentence
Beer, jealousy and a courtroom display of bruises followed a night at the New Zealand dance house and the Mint.
- Federal Land Claims Struck Down in Seattle
Secretary Noble rejects a group of homestead applications in the Seattle district, potentially halting a syndicate's attempt to hoard thousands of acres.
- The Blue-Flowered Bonanza: How Whatcom County Found Flax
A Ferndale doctor's experiments convince the federal government that Puget Sound can out-produce Europe's linen fields — and New York capital starts paying attention.
- The Forgotten Souls of the County Poor Farm
A rare, unflinching account of the grim conditions inside Seattle’s makeshift county asylum, where the elderly and infirm were left to languish on hard wooden planks.
- Cheaper to Ship Wheat to Liverpool Than to Seattle: An Inland Empire Farmer's Case Against the Railroads
A Whitman County grower tells the Post-Intelligencer that Palouse wheat can be raised for about 30 cents a bushel — and sent 16,000 miles to England for less than the railroad charges to haul it 400 miles to the Sound.
- The Great Escape: Two Prisoners Vanish from Seattle’s Basement Jail
In a display of audacity and desperation, two men held on smuggling and liquor charges crawled through a torn-off board in a water closet to flee the U.S. Marshal’s improvised prison beneath the Clancy Building.
- The Customs Collector and the Straw Men of Puget Sound
A Tacoma official accuses Collector J. C. Saunders of padding the customs payroll with political workers—including a no-show inspector—for work never done at the Interstate Fair.
- The Garbage Crisis: Seattle’s ‘Primitive’ Streets Demand a Permanent Solution
As the City Council debates the fate of the city's waste, officials warn that makeshift disposal methods are turning neighborhoods into health hazards and driving down property values.
- The Great Sunday Exodus: Seattle’s Mass Migration to East Lake
In a display of weather defiance and civic pride, thousands of residents abandoned the city center for the shores of Lake Washington, turning Stern & Miller’s new development into an impromptu amusement park.
- The Judge Who Ejected His Own Lawyer: A Tacoma Courtroom Meltdown
In a bizarre turn of events at the Thurston County Courthouse, Presiding Judge Laurence silenced defense counsel Bronston and refused to hear the prisoner's testimony, leaving John Halson to face burglary charges in silence.
- The Effigy in the Pine Tree
Charles Gloystein crossed Spokane County's Populists and woke to find himself hanged in straw. Then he vanished.
- The Inspector Who Rode Free: Seattle's Steamboat Watchdog on Trial
Local steamboat inspector W. J. Bryant stands accused of favoritism in granting licenses, of padding his travel accounts while riding free, and of owing his office to his sidelines selling life-preservers and marine insurance.
- The Elderberry Wine Defense: How a Contested Election Collapsed in Laughter
Populists dropped their challenge to Commissioner Nickerson, but testimony in the sheriff and coroner contests turned up sailors voting under protest and a lunch bag of elderberry wine at a Franklin polling place.
- The Newspaper Letter That Nearly Started a Fight in the Washington Senate
With the U.S. Senate election deadlocked in Olympia, a Pierce County senator read a rival’s letter aloud — and the chamber erupted over money, lobbyists, and borrowed favors.