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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1858 | 1 |
| 1860 | 1 |
| 1861 | 1 |
| 1877 | 3 |
| 1885 | 1 |
| 1891 | 4 |
| 1892 | 1 |
| 1893 | 2 |
| 1894 | 3 |
| 1895 | 3 |
| 1903 | 2 |
| 1909 | 1 |
23 stories matching reproach
- The Marriage Mill: Is Olympia a Haven for Runaways?
Legislative divorce bills in 1860 are turning Washington Territory into a 'by-word and reproach' as lawmakers bypass the courts to dissolve marriages for political favors.
- There's "Dough" in Every Street Contract: A Preacher Takes On City Hall
Rev. Napoleon Hoagland reads the nation's municipal record aloud — reeking streets, a million-dollar franchise given away, councilmen who elsewhere would count themselves lucky to stay out of prison — and asks why democratic America breeds more thieves than the Tsar's Europe.
- Hanged on a Doubt: Washington Territory's First White Execution
When John Thompson was hanged in Seattle in 1877, many believed he was guilty of manslaughter, not murder. The Dispatch made the case that the law had taken a life it should have spared.
- A Tramp's Alibi: Thirty Tumwater Witnesses and a Murder Conviction Undone
A poor itinerant tinker was jailed for a Tacoma murder until residents of a small Thurston County hotel town swore he was miles away. The state Supreme Court ordered a new trial.
- The San Juan Island Standoff
Tensions between American settlers and British authorities on San Juan Island flare in the territorial legislature, sparking a debate over sovereignty and the treatment of American interests.
- A Cook's Last Night in Tacoma
Injured, stranded ashore and facing the loss of his berth, a steamboat cook spends his final hours quarreling with his wife before swallowing morphine in a boarding-house room.
- The Social Siege of Miss Alioa Burns
A young Seattle resident is expelled from a Tacoma club dance, sparking a standoff and a threat of legal retribution.
- County Finances in Shambles
A scathing report reveals Chehalis County is $105,000 in debt while local officials draw high salaries.
- The Forgotten: Advocating for Washington Territory’s Deaf, Blind, and Feeble-Minded Children
A compelling 1885 editorial highlights the territorial government's failure to educate citizens with disabilities, framing their exclusion as both a moral failing and a future burden.
- Carried Out of Church, Then Found Reading Luke
Already expelled for 'lack of moral rectitude,' Dr. Everett O. Johnson returns to a revival service at First M.E. Church and is removed by police and ushers. His open Bible offers the episode's strangest coda.
- The Marked Five-Dollar Bill That Unmasked a 'Good Citizen'
A trusted expressman caught by a trap bill confessed to a March safe robbery — and a man his friends thought beyond reproach was sentenced to up to fourteen years.
- Seattle Lawyers Turn a Charity Baseball Game Into a Biblical War
Rival teams of Courthouse Hill lawyers announced themselves Philistines and Jacobites, issued mock proclamations, and promised a 500-pound batter—all to sell tickets for the Associated Charities.
- The Sheriff Who Would Be Governor
A political endorsement of John H. McGraw, framing his tenure as sheriff and his 'moral courage' as the ideal preparation for state leadership.
- The Burglar Who Wanted a Razor Before Walla Walla
Richard H. Ford, a self-styled 'famous burglar' with a morphine habit, was shipped off to the state penitentiary—after begging for a shave and trying to dig through the jail floor.
- A Hammer-Wielding Wife in Chehalis
A domestic dispute in Chehalis turns violent when a wife allegedly attacks her husband with a hammer after he accuses her of infidelity.
- The Ghost in the Carriage: A Seattle Wife’s Vigil
An observant reporter catches a glimpse of a woman waiting night after night for her husband, a scene of quiet, invisible domestic sacrifice in the heart of 1877 Seattle.
- The Vultures on Steilacoom's Streets
A furious 1858 editorial accuses local authorities of letting California gamblers plunder the town in plain sight.
- The Stranger from Pike
An eccentric traveler’s awkward recovery of a lost hat becomes a temporary spectacle on Main Street in Walla Walla.
- Walla Walla Elects a New Police Chief
Alvah Brown secures an overwhelming electoral victory after a long career as a patrolman and local business owner.
- The Laundress Who Broke a Heart
A romantic tragedy in Walla Walla turns out to be a classic tale of modern frustration: the laundry wasn't ready.
- The Breakfast Table Umpire
A fed-up boarder decides he's had enough of the baseball-obsessed chatter at his table.
- The Burden of Owning a High-Class Dog
Humorist Bill Nye reflects on the social anxieties of owning an English mastiff that clearly views his owner as a social inferior.
- The Transformation of the 'Lava Bed'
A historic Seattle neighborhood known for 'drunken revelry and hellish orgies' faces an impending industrial rebirth.
Also about this, in other words
- The Defendant as a Plaything of the State
A legal battle over repeated arrests for the same charge highlights the arbitrary power of local prosecutors in 1890s Seattle.
- A Lawyer Outwits the Law
After sitting in jail for sixty days without a trial, an enterprising young attorney secures his own release by quoting the state code.
- The 'Plant Scurvy' Plague
A state official claims a revolutionary cure for orchard blights, blaming soil chemistry rather than disease.
- The False Solution to Homelessness
A radical critique of the 1909 railroad industry's plan to solve unemployment by mass imprisonment.
- The Iron-Jawed Worm That Ate Seattle's Wharves
At the foot of Harrison Street, the Colman family has a new weapon against the teredo worm: steam, a vacuum, and a dose of dead oil of tar.
- The Sawmill Trap
A local mill worker shares a harrowing account of surviving a near-fatal workplace injury.
- A Doctor, a Bigamist, and a Fleeing Quack
A medical man practicing without a license flees Vancouver for Seattle after his double life is exposed.
- The Political 'Tramp' Hits the Streets
A new reform journal emerges in Seattle, embroiled in the bitter factionalism of the People’s Party and the city's complex political machinery.