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18 stories matching shabbi
- The Sheriff’s Shabby Costume: A Prisoner’s Trick to Escape the Penitentiary
In a bizarre twist of early Washington Territory justice, a sheriff attempted to smuggle a prisoner into the territorial penitentiary by disguising him in shabby clothes. The trick failed, but not before the warden made a memorable quip.
- The World's Fair Forestry Fiasco
Grays Harbor lumbermen express outrage over the state's 'shabby' display at the Chicago World's Fair, claiming their industry was ignored and misrepresented.
- The 'Veneer and Sham' of 19th Century Schooling
A historic critique of a curriculum overstuffed with 'smatterings' and fancy subjects, arguing that public schools were failing to provide the basic, useful education required for life.
- The Fading Mineral Palace
Citizens petition to remove the aging, unsightly 'Mineral Palace' from Pioneer Place.
- The Operator Was Sleeping: A Seattle Telephone Scandal
In 1885, Seattle residents were so fed up with poor service and sleeping operators at the local telephone exchange that the newspaper demanded a total administrative overhaul.
- The Steamboat Betrayal
A local captain accuses Ottawa officials of reneging on a mail contract after he already invested in the route.
- The Pioneer Fever: Why Aberdeen's First Business Leaders Stayed
Early commercial titans share the accidents, rainy days, and raw optimism that led them to build a city on the muddy banks of Grays Harbor.
- The Price of a Child's Abuse
A Seattle court hears harrowing testimony of an acrobat child beaten by his handlers, sparking a packed, tense courtroom drama.
- White Husbands in Indigenous Communities on the Frontier
General O.O. Howard describes the precarious lives of white men who married Indigenous women in the Pacific Northwest.
- The Price of Rebuilding Seattle After the Great Fire
As the city rises from the ashes of the 1889 Great Fire, editors urge property owners to resist the temptation of 'fire traps' and prioritize permanent, safe construction over quick profits.
- The Town That 'Resorted to Flat-Boats'
A skeptical writer from Walla Walla mocked Olympia’s tide-swept landscape, prompting a sharp, defensive retort from the local editor.
- The Mesmerist’s Web: How Two Wives Defied Police to Free a Seattle Scandal
Charles Woodruff, the city's most notorious mesmerist and alleged bigamist, remains behind bars not because of lack of evidence, but because his former wives refuse to testify against him.
- The Tariff That Stole Your Coat: How Washington's Economy Was Held Hostage
In October 1890, Aberdeen workers and farmers felt the bite of the McKinley Tariff before it even passed, as prices soared and wages stagnated in a state where 'free labor' was being priced out of existence.
- The Great Northern President vs. The Boarding House Landlady
Railroad tycoon James J. Hill had to prove his identity with a handful of letters after being told to 'get out' by a Fairhaven woman who mistook him for a tramp.
- The Shame of the Wharf: Child Labor on Seattle’s Waterfront
A local paper condemns the sight of young girls selling apples among 'hard cases' and criminals at the O.R. & N. dock, demanding police intervention.
- The Mother Who Was Left Behind
A tragic railway accident reveals a painful divide between a social-climbing daughter and her neglected mother.
- The Hill That Couldn't Be Saved: Fire Chief Pleads for Water on Seattle’s Steepest Slopes
In a stark report from June 1904, Chief Joshua Phillips warns that the city’s volunteer fire brigade is powerless against blazes in the steep upper districts, where gravity defeats their hoses and time kills buildings.
- Keep Your Money at Home? In Kennewick, the Shoe-Leather Trail Led to Pasco
A letter to the editor takes aim at buy-local boosterism, arguing that Kennewick shoppers already knew the real prices—and often crossed the river to Pasco or sent away for mail-order catalogs.