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42 stories matching rake
- The 10 Percent Rake-Off That Put Tacoma's Water Board on Trial
A job printer's testimony blows open an inquiry into the Tacoma Board of Public Works, where the president admits he knows little about running the city's water and electric plants—and a councilman asks if he has any shame.
- The Rake-Off on the Scales
A Puget Sound shingle maker said the new freight-weighing law would expose a quiet racket: shippers pocketing the difference while mills were charged for phantom overweights.
- A Mastodon Discovery in the Washington Countryside
A young boy scraping at the bottom of a spring unearths a relic from a lost era, shedding light on the ancient history buried beneath the ranch lands of Washington.
- Corruption Allegations Rock Snohomish County
The prosecuting attorney has filed suit to remove all three county commissioners, alleging drunkenness, waste, and kickbacks from construction contracts.
- The Anatomy of a Municipal Graft Scandal
Walla Walla looks to Ballard's sewer corruption and the failures of contractor H.E. Worley to warn citizens about municipal incompetence.
- The Informant of Tacoma’s Underworld
After testifying against the city’s corrupt police chief, a key witness finds himself in the crosshairs of a retaliatory robbery charge.
- 'Only Another Name for a Sort of Annual Picnic': Washington's Road-Tax Fight
A good-roads convention hears that farmers resent paying their road tax in cash instead of working it out, that the money vanishes into 'graft or rake-off,' and that Spokane County's section-line roads were laid out so badly they must be rebuilt from scratch.
- The Desperate Struggle for Winter Heat
Two destitute women caught raking coal from railroad cars were brought before a local justice, who faced a hard choice between the law and the reality of poverty.
- The Snohomish Bond Scheme: How Outsiders Tried to Rig City Finances
When Eastern and California financiers tried to orchestrate a 'little combine' to depress the value of city bonds, Snohomish officials fought back.
- The Fight Against Tacoma's Rubbish
Health officials and the Pure Food Council declare war on 'old shacks' and vacant-lot dumping ahead of a summer influx of tourists.
- Fire Consumes Ranch Home Near Lenora
A family narrowly escapes a blaze that destroyed their home and belongings, including cash found later in the ashes.
- Admitting the Stagnation: The Commercial Club's Self-Critique
The local Commercial Club meets to dissect why their organization has stopped functioning, leading to a vow of manual labor on the roads.
- The Territory Outlaws Oyster Poaching
A new statute aims to prevent the total depletion of local oyster beds by banning harvesting during the summer breeding season.
- An Ancient Secret Emerges from the Wishkah River
While gardening on the banks of the Wishkah, a local couple unearthed a human skull and a mysterious stone tool, reigniting local legends about the 'Stinking Waters.'
- A Class Day of Mud and Ivy
Students of the class of 1915 traded their books for tools to beautify the school grounds, planting trees and laying a stone wall in a historic day of communal labor.
- The Garden Prank That Sour-Ed a Marriage
A husband’s elaborate scheme to fool his wife with gilded pebbles backfires, leaving the household in a state of icy tension.
- The Oyster King’s Great Bay: How One Man Planted a Fortune in Puget Sound
While the rest of Seattle watches the markets, A.J. Burr is engineering a tidal empire at Marshville, turning mudflats into gold with dykes and 1,000 bushels of seed.
- The Great Columbia Fish Rush
When an electric railway culvert at Columbia flooded the flats, local residents turned the disaster into a spontaneous community harvest of salmon and trout.
- The Trial of Ursula Juanita Unfug
A sensational murder trial in Seattle has become a lightning rod for social scandal, with rumors of political corruption and witness tampering swirling around the case.
- The Iron Road Reaches Seattle
How James J. Hill bypassed government land grants to connect the Pacific Coast to the interior, permanently altering Seattle’s future.
- The Tragedy of a Log in Lake Washington
After a day of fruitless searching, a grappling hook snagged a log that held a secret—the body of a missing 11-year-old boy.
- Tacoma’s Whitewash That Wasn’t
A public-works president accuses a newly appointed superintendent of dishonesty—then refuses to put the charges in writing.
- When Seattle Won the Transcontinental Sweepstakes
In 1890, the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, and Union Pacific converged on Seattle, transforming the city from a remote settlement into a global Pacific terminus.
- The Last Laugh on the Tariff: A Farmer’s Satirical Roast of McKinley
In a December 1890 edition of the Aberdeen Herald, a poem titled 'Better Than a Gold Mine' mocks President-elect William McKinley’s protectionist policies with biting wit.
- The Oyster King’s Blueprint: How Connecticut’s ‘Submarine Landlords’ Could Save Washington’s Economy
A visiting shellfish commissioner reveals that state-owned oyster beds create wealthier workers and richer treasuries—a radical land reform idea taking root in Aberdeen.