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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1877 | 2 |
| 1880 | 1 |
| 1883 | 1 |
| 1886 | 1 |
| 1889 | 2 |
| 1892 | 3 |
| 1893 | 2 |
| 1894 | 3 |
| 1895 | 2 |
| 1903 | 1 |
| 1909 | 1 |
| 1916 | 2 |
22 stories matching assent
- The Labor Journal’s Lesson in Hypocrisy
A satirical exchange exposes the double standards applied to organized labor versus corporate 'community of interest' trusts.
- The Seattle Bond That Broke the Rules
A legal dispute over a $15,000 appeal bond reveals the messy, high-stakes nature of early Seattle commerce and the scrutiny of contract law.
- A Prison Wedding for a Wayward Couple
A young runaway and her lover are arrested in a room together; their path to freedom is a marriage ceremony performed behind bars.
- A New State’s Duty to Its Waterfront
As Washington prepares for statehood, a 1889 editorial warns against allowing private interests to seize control of the public tidelands.
- The World's Fair Power Struggle
Washington's delegation to the Chicago World's Fair descends into a messy dispute over unpaid vouchers and administrative authority.
- The Highlands Call to Action
A local correspondent challenges Kennewick women to show their 'political sense' by voting in the upcoming primaries.
- The Uncharted Frontier
Without federal funding for land surveys, homesteaders in Washington State are left in legal limbo, unable to secure titles to the ground they farm.
- Tacoma's $750,000 Railroad Bait—and the Utility Deal That Fell Apart
A hastily passed water-and-light purchase ordinance is dead on arrival, while C. B. Wright dangles another railroad in front of Tacoma taxpayers.
- The Great 1892 Debt Cleanup: How Seattle Tried to Bail Itself Out
Facing a mountain of unpaid municipal warrants and a legal crisis, Seattle's city council rushed a desperate bond measure to the ballot to keep the city's lights on and workers paid.
- The Spokane Cash infusion that bought a mayoral bid
When local Seattle Democrats couldn't find a candidate to run for mayor, they looked east to a wealthy Spokane power broker willing to bankroll the party to further his own Senate ambitions.
- The Price of a City’s Future: Yesler’s Corner
A single landowner held Seattle’s urban development hostage, forcing the city council to choose between private property rights and the public good.
- The Hypocrisy of the Amen Corner
A skeptical local columnist exposes the 'sham' piety of a congregation member, offering a gritty glimpse into the social life of 1877 Seattle.
- The Captain’s Silence: A Seattle Court Rules on Brutality at Sea
In a landmark Admiralty case heard in Seattle in 1872, Judge Jacobs holds ship owner E.A. Nickels liable for the brutal beating of sailor Frank Griffin, establishing that a captain's failure to stop abuse is an endorsement of it.
- The Boss’s Math Lesson
A worker asks for a raise and receives a bizarre, exhaustive breakdown explaining why he supposedly never works a full day.
- City Hall Sewer Scandal Claims Another Victim
A foreman is fired after refusing to yield control of a North Seattle sewer tunnel to an unqualified, politically appointed successor.
- The Perilous Bathing of the Seattle Snake-House
A keeper's routine bath for his serpents turns into a life-or-death struggle when a 14-foot boa constrictor decides to coil around his leg.
- A Correspondent Reports on the Nez Perce Conflict
Writing from Olympia in 1877, a local correspondent describes Nez Perce leaders’ refusal to relocate and the surprise attack that sparked a war many understood as a defense of home.
- The Woman on Her Sister's Grave
A young woman shoots herself at Lake View cemetery and gives her name as Mrs. Whitney. Two families then arrive at her hospital bed, and neither can agree on who she is.
- A Judge's Verdict on the Pullman Strike: The Men Who Stayed on the Job Came First
A federal judge in Seattle refused to order the receivers of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern to reinstate fifteen striking ex-employees, praising the non-union engineers who kept the trains running and condemning the boycott as an attempt to destroy the business that had paid them.
- A Judge Takes Aim at Seattle's Charter Reformers
Judge Orange Jacobs mocks the men who promised a new city charter would cure every municipal ill — and doubts any document can make people honest.
- The Taxpayers' League vs. The Railroads: A Battle for Fair Valuation in Columbia County
In May 1903, local citizens and tax experts challenged the massive capitalization of the Oregon Railway Navigation Company, arguing that its true value warranted a higher tax assessment to fund public services.
- Hasheesh, Absinthe, and a Human Pelvis in the Page Murder Trial
Defense experts told a Seattle jury that a drug could explain Page's condition on the morning he shot Fraser, while the state argued he remembered everything.
Also about this, in other words
- The Surrender Demand That Came Before Peace
Father De Smet escorts Kamiakin, Skloom, and other chiefs to Vancouver to meet Gen. Harney—but the terms are blunt: the 'ringleaders' must be handed over first.
- A Councilman's Attempt at Control
A local Everett union official tries to insert 'obey' into the oath of office for his colleagues.
- The Biblical Courtship of 1887
A silent, pewside romance unfolds in a Seattle church using only a Bible and verse-pointing as a medium for a marriage proposal.