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1. The Beggar’s Plea: How an Old Man’s Tears Won a Judge’s Mercy

   In a touching scene at the Snohomish County Courthouse, John Burner, a destitute laborer of 73 years, pleaded guilty to grand larceny not for greed, but because his starving family had no other way to eat.

   Jun 17, 1876The Northern StarSnohomish County Courthouse, SnohomishWork & Pay

2. A Wall of Smoke and Flame Across Puget Sound

   Forest fires from Hood Canal to the Nooksack Valley left dozens of families homeless in 1894, while smoke turned steamboat travel blind and daily life in Seattle into a gray haze.

   Sep 1, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerPuget Sound, Seattle, King CountyDisasters

3. Seattle’s 1895 Co-op Where 150 Unemployed Men Ate for 7 Cents a Day

   At a Belltown barracks, unemployed single men pooled their wages, submitted to military-style rules and fed an average of 150 people daily for about 7 cents each.

   Jan 25, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyHousing & Rent · Work & Pay

4. The River That Swallowed a Steamboat: A Brave Attempt to Reach Snohomish Falls

   Twenty-five passengers and tons of freight battled the treacherous Snoqualmie River on the steamer *Columbia*, only to be stopped by a massive landslide just miles from their destination.

   May 20, 1876The Northern StarSnohomish, Snohomish CountyBoom & Bust · Strange But True

5. A Judge Reverses Himself and Lets the Gamblers Walk

   A raid on Moy Lung's Washington Street gambling house netted twenty-two Chinese men. Then Municipal Judge Glasgow dismissed the cases, reversed a guilty verdict, and remitted the one fine he had already imposed.

   Mar 16, 1895The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyCity Hall · Nightlife

6. The Trusted Watchman’s Secret Life

   After 16 years of loyal service, a Hoquiam mill watchman is caught red-handed with a secret kit of burglary tools.

   Jul 21, 1905The Kennewick CourierHoquiam, Grays Harbor CountyTrue Crime

7. The Brutal Reality of the Black Diamond Ring

   A quiet, illicit prize fight in a local hall ended with a forced surrender as seventy-five spectators watched a miner beat a man from Franklin.

   Apr 9, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerBlack Diamond, King CountyNightlife

8. The $12,000 Gamble: Seattle’s Plan to Woo the East with a Car Full of Dirt and Fruit

   In 1889, local booster George Storrs proposed a radical marketing stunt: load a railroad car with Puget Sound’s minerals and produce, tour the Eastern U.S. for six months, and pay for it by charging every resident $0.10.

   Mar 22, 1889The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyBoom & Bust

9. The Carpenter's Secret Compartment

   A crafty smuggler’s hollowed-out tool chest, designed to look like the property of a humble working man, fails to outsmart Seattle Customs inspectors.

   Mar 4, 1887Seattle Daily Post-IntelligencerSeattle Waterfront, Seattle, King CountyTrue Crime

10. A Crushed Finger Gave the Safecracker Away

    A suspected Kent burglar was tracked to a Railroad Avenue cabin, where police found skeleton keys, drills and powder—then identified him by the crushed finger described in an old escape notice.

    Apr 19, 1894The Seattle Post-IntelligencerSeattle, King CountyTrue Crime

11. The Great Migration to the 'Power of Central Washington'

    An 1889 promotional poem and report lured families from the 'crowded cities' of the East and Midwest to the promised land of the Wenatchee River valley.

    Aug 30, 1889The Seattle Post-IntelligencerWenatchee, Chelan CountyBoom & Bust

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