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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1872 | 6 |
| 1876 | 13 |
| 1877 | 5 |
| 1878 | 4 |
| 1880 | 3 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 7 |
| 1884 | 5 |
| 1885 | 8 |
| 1886 | 4 |
| 1887 | 6 |
| 1888 | 5 |
| 1889 | 19 |
| 1890 | 2 |
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| 1892 | 25 |
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| 1924 | 1 |
198 stories matching shame
- An Outrage on the River: Snohomish Demands Reliable Mail
Local business leaders call for a boycott of congressional candidates until they pledge to fix the 'shameful' and intermittent mail delivery to Snohomish.
- The Shame of the King County Jail
A scathing report from a grand jury reveals a 'standing disgrace' where prisoners are packed into windowless cells and the county government operates in squalid, cramped quarters.
- The Seattle Judge Who Stood Up to 'Professional' Idlers
When a woman shot her abusive husband in 1886, a Seattle judge refused to convict her, explicitly calling out a class of men who lived off the earnings of their wives' shame.
- The Judge’s Double Life: Seduction, Abortion, and the Cover-Up That Shook Tacoma
In 1889, a young canvasser named Sadie Brantner took the stand to accuse Pierce County Probate Judge James Wickersham of luring her into a trap in Seattle, forcing an illegal abortion, and paying her off to silence. The trial revealed a web of deceit involving fake names, land fraud, and medical conspiracies.
- Primary Election Fraud Alleged in King County
Citizens of the People's Party accuse local political rings of rigging ward primaries through intimidation and mass-importing voters.
- Seattle’s 'Reform' Government Promised Clean Streets and Low Taxes. Two Years Later, the Bill Came Due.
A furious 1894 editorial accuses the Democratic city administration of breaking every campaign promise—keeping Whitechapel open, protecting gambling, and cutting day laborers while salaried officials kept their pay.
- The City That Forgot to Flush: Seattle’s Shameful Sewer Crisis
As the population surges toward 40,000, an editorial warns that neglecting public health infrastructure is a 'crime' waiting for a deadly summer.
- The Last Stand of the American Flag in Samoa
Secretary Bayard’s dismissal of Consul Reesell sparks outrage over U.S. surrender to German bullying in the Pacific.
- City Hall Under Siege for Corruption
Calls for the impeachment of two public works commissioners trigger fears of a city hall whitewash.
- 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 Fallout of a Family Exile
A young woman fleeing the shame of an unplanned pregnancy from Walla Walla to Seattle turns her own uncle in to federal authorities, sparking a legal drama over accusations of 'obscene' letters.
- The Weight of a Pawned Watch
Haunted by the shame of an unpaid debt and lost gambling funds, a Seattle man takes his own life in the lodgings above Wa Chong's store.
- The Parade Ground Is Now a Ward: A Visitor Walks the Territory's Asylum
Where the 4th Infantry once drilled to fife and drum, a correspondent finds sagging fences, two overworked keepers to a men's ward, and a lone matron holding the women's department — all on an appropriation he calls 'a shame to our people.'
- The Unladylike Ballot
When women marched to the polls in Pasco, it sparked a local scandal that challenged traditional notions of 'respectability' and gender roles.
- The Shipbuilder Who Wasn't: A Swindler’s Bogus Checks and a Wife’s Shame
Captain John E. Higgins arrives in Seattle posing as a respected Bath, Maine shipbuilder, only to be exposed by Harbor Police Officer Metzler after cashing forged checks on local merchants.
- Fifty Murders, Not One Hanging: Seattle Puts Its Courts on Trial
A Post-Intelligencer editorial argues that endless technical appeals have made King County a place where killers walk free — and warns that the resulting public fury is the courts' own fault.
- A Citizen's Public Protest Against a Councilman
A local resident takes to the newspaper to shame an elected official over his opposition to telephone competition in the city.
- The Ruins of a Bishop’s Household
After years in storage on the Seattle waterfront, Bishop Paddock's furniture was recovered in a state of 'shameful' decay, riddled with rats and broken glass.
- Thrown Into a Saw at Colman's Mill — and the Law Looked the Other Way
When Peter Feeney attacked a Chinese coworker in a Seattle sawmill, the man's foot was mangled beyond repair. The justice of the peace declined to hold Feeney, the prosecutor dismissed the case, and the town's paper argued the injury was just an accident.
- A Desperate Escape in a Boarding House
After years of alleged domestic abuse, a young woman in a Third Avenue boarding house attempts to end her life.
- The Brutal Legacy of Seattle's Vigilante Justice
A citizen letter from 1894 reflects on the city's dark history of mob violence and the perceived failure of the legal system to address crime.
- Couple Arrested for Alleged Trafficking of Swedish Immigrant
Police break up a scheme to force a young Swedish woman into prostitution at a Kinnear block tenement.
- The Trial of a Seattle Anti-Chinese Rioter
In 1885, a local judge delivers a blistering instruction to a jury, reminding them that the 'stranger and sojourner' are entitled to the equal protection of American law during a time of rampant xenophobic violence.
- The Newspaper Editor and the Political Bruiser
A brutal street assault in Olympia reveals the volatile intersection of frontier politics and an independent press.
- The Coal Creek Massacre: A Coroner’s Inquest into the Battle Between Knights of Labor and Mine Owners
In January 1890, Seattle Sheriff Cochrane deployed militia to Newcastle to suppress a miners' strike. When a riot erupted at Coal Creek, one man was killed and ten arrested. The subsequent coroner's inquest revealed a chaotic scene where union men claimed self-defense against armed mine owners, while the sheriff dismissed the Knights of Labor as 'too excitable.'
Also about this, in other words
- A Public Shaming in 1876 Seattle
A husband takes to the pages of the local newspaper to publicly disavow his wife, a common, legally sanctioned form of domestic surveillance in the late 19th century.
- An 1874 Public Shaming of a Missing Wife
A husband publishes a newspaper notice to strip his spouse of financial agency after she leaves their home.
- An 1875 Public Shaming in Seattle
A husband publishes a newspaper notice to strip his wife of her financial agency after she leaves their home.
- The Shame of Seattle's City Jail
A grand jury investigation into Seattle’s penal system reveals a crumbling facility plagued by filth, corruption, and the disappearance of evidence.
- The Wife Who Couldn't Bear the Badge of Shame
In 1903 Spokane, a woman secured a divorce from her husband not because he was abusive, but because his life sentence for murder made her social standing untenable.
- The Lake Keeps Its Secret: A Tragedy of Adultery in Wenatchee
A local man and a married woman drown together on the lake; while her body is recovered, he remains lost to the depths, serving as a grim moral lesson for the community.
- The Disappearing Spouse: A 19th Century Public Shaming
In an era before no-fault divorce, a Seattle husband took to the public press to publicly renounce his wife's debts and dictate his marital authority.
- The Unjust Public Shaming of J.E. Spafford
After the death of his wife, a Seattle laborer fights back against local gossip and accusations of neglect in a poignant appeal to the press.