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| Year | Stories |
|---|---|
| 1863 | 2 |
| 1865 | 1 |
| 1872 | 1 |
| 1876 | 9 |
| 1877 | 10 |
| 1878 | 2 |
| 1880 | 2 |
| 1882 | 2 |
| 1883 | 8 |
| 1884 | 3 |
| 1885 | 6 |
| 1887 | 2 |
| 1888 | 4 |
| 1889 | 11 |
| 1890 | 1 |
| 1891 | 10 |
| 1892 | 6 |
| 1893 | 6 |
| 1894 | 10 |
| 1895 | 3 |
| 1897 | 1 |
| 1899 | 4 |
| 1903 | 3 |
| 1904 | 1 |
| 1909 | 1 |
| 1923 | 1 |
110 stories matching tone
- The Minister’s Holy Kick
A traveling preacher pulls a fast one on a highwayman in this classic piece of frontier satire.
- The Clergyman's Dilemma
Two officiants arrived to marry a couple; the governor yielded to 'give tone,' and the clergyman wed them.
- The Trial of Judge Wickersham: A Tacoma Scandal Over Land, Lies, and 'Delirium'
In February 1889, the trial of a powerful federal judge in Tacoma exposed a web of political corruption, land fraud, and sexual scandal involving a young woman named Sadie Brantner.
- The Murder Foretold: Three Japanese Laborers Held Without Bail
A witness testifies that one suspect predicted the killing hours in advance, and a bloody butcher knife is found in a kitchen wall. Three Japanese men are ordered held without bail for the murder of a Japanese boss near Christopher.
- Dark Humor on the Seattle Frontier
A grim tale of early Seattle life and the macabre way settlers identified human remains.
- The Cow-Bell Symphony of Old Seattle
For one sleepless resident, the chaotic nightly parade of loose cattle through the city streets became an unintentional, ear-piercing orchestra.
- The Eastern Oregon Burned at Percival’s Wharf
A repair crew’s paint store caught fire aboard the steamship Eastern Oregon, forcing men to jump forty feet to the mudflats and killing one cook; the blaze threatened Percival’s Wharf before rain helped firefighters.
- The Night a Bullet Whistled Through the Vice President’s Window
A brush with political assassination in Seattle's past—revealed only after the danger had passed.
- Seattle Rallies Against Chinese Labor at the Standard Theater
An overflow crowd packs the Standard Theater to demand the total exclusion of Chinese laborers and the termination of the Burlingame Treaty, revealing the deep economic anxieties of the era.
- A Circular Saw Opened His Skull—and He Stayed Conscious
At the Stetson Post Mill on Commercial Street, engineer Horatio Stetson crawled under a rip-saw table to fix a belt. The saw caught his head, cutting through bone and into his brain, yet he never lost consciousness.
- The Last Breath in Walla Walla: A Mother’s Collapse as Her Son Faces the Gallows
In May 1888, John Ham was sentenced to death for murder in Washington Territory. His mother, Mrs. Pyle, broke down in court, while their co-conspirator fled the state, leaving the family to face the ultimate penalty.
- The Vigilantes' Ghost: Seattle's Dark Secret in Two Maple Trees
A poem published in the *Seattle Daily Post-Intelligencer* reveals the city’s foundational myth: that its current 'peaceable' order was bought with the blood of six men hanged by a secret committee when the law failed to act.
- The Six Who Vanished: Tacoma’s Senatorial Scandal and the Art of Political Silence
In the wake of a bitter Washington State Senate race, the six key allies of defeated candidate Judge Calkins have disappeared from public view, leaving behind a trail of bribery allegations and a furious debate over whether the election was stolen or won by superior strategy.
- The Scandal at St. Mary’s
A Seattle Episcopal rector faces a congregation-led revolt after rumors of 'immoral practices' turn an ordinary service into a chaotic public showdown.
- Liquor Dealers Organize to Capture City Council
A slim meeting at Columbia Hall reveals a saloon-backed push to elect Murphy and Grainger, as the liquor interests try to regain control after last year's defeat.
- The Woman Who Refused the Judge
A Seattle woman stands her ground in municipal court, calling out a judge's election fraud and choosing jail over a fine.
- The City That Forgot How to Ride: Seattle’s Battle for Short-Term Streetcar Franchises
In May 1899, the Seattle Star warned that granting long-term monopolies to street railway companies would leave the city trapped with obsolete technology and inflated prices. The paper argued fiercely for short-term grants to keep corporations accountable—a debate that echoes in today’s transit infrastructure battles.
- The Slave Ship That Vanished: An Old Man’s Confession in Seattle
A weathered sailor walks into a Seattle saloon and recounts the night his crew mutinied against a slaver, only to watch the ship sink with 200 souls aboard.
- Who Stole the Northern Pacific Express Gold?
A three-thousand-dollar payroll shipment vanishes from a Seattle express office, triggering threats, a dramatic interrogation, and accusations of internal negligence.
- The General, the Strikers, and the Company That Wouldn't Ride With a Scab Crew
Brig. Gen. A. V. Curry explains why he handed the rifles back to Spokane's Company G after its men refused to travel with a substitute crew — and why he thought the colonel who disarmed them had acted too hastily.
- The Bloody Hammer and the Brewer's Wife
Seattle prosecutors rest their murder case against Craemer after a courtroom day of fire, hidden gold, and a suspect whose hands shook at the sight of the weapon.
- "That Ticket Has Blood on It": The Night Seattle Was Haunted by a Cursed Bill
A mysterious $5 bill with a death threat scribbled on the back sparked a city-wide panic and a frantic search for two young women who vanished into the night.
- The Day the Sloop Fired on a Federal Cutter
In 1860, twenty-four Port Townsend citizens chartered a sloop to save $5 on fares to Olympia. When intercepted by a revenue cutter, their captain opened fire with a brass howitzer—only to discover he’d just threatened the U.S. government.
- The 'Pitiful Hedizzened Hurlots': Seattle's Moral Panic Over the Steamship Brothels
In September 1872, a furious editorial in the *Seattle Daily Intelligencer* condemned the floating red-light districts on Puget Sound, accusing steamship lines of carrying 'pollution and death' to every port while politicians looked away.
- The Ghosting of J.C. Icebrook
A persistent suitor looking for a 'traveling companion' finds himself ensnared in a web of elaborate decoys set by a local woman and her clever brother.