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| Year | Stories |
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| 1877 | 3 |
| 1878 | 2 |
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22 stories matching vagabond
- Police Urged to 'Clean Out' Seattle's Vagabonds
An editorial from the Post-Intelligencer calls for the removal of 'worthless vagabonds' from the city, warning of potential murder and riots.
- The High-Fence Strategy Against 'Vagabonds'
In an attempt to deter 'traveling vagabonds' from loitering in Seattle's waterfront district, the city's rail companies have erected a 16-foot-high barricade.
- The City’s 'Worthless' Vagabond Problem
A 1885 editorial call for the city to forcibly expel the unemployed, framed as a nuisance to the thriving Pacific Northwest economy.
- The Great Chicken Scandal of 1877
A wave of missing poultry in early Seattle highlights the city's growing anxiety over poverty, xenophobia, and the 'vagabond' population of the waterfront.
- The Shoe-Stealing Vagabond of Grant Street
A suspicious man found peddling a suitcase full of brand-new footwear on a Seattle bridge lands in jail.
- An Indecent Display at the Coal Bunkers
Seattle residents take offense as sailors from the barkentine Modoc turn the public waterfront into an impromptu swimming hole.
- The Riot That Never Happened
When tensions over Chinese labor threatened to boil over in 1885, Seattle’s civic leaders scrambled to maintain order, fearing the influence of 'vagabonds and thugs' seeking chaos.
- The Vagabond Fortune-Teller: Seattle Arrests 'Madame Malla' for the Crime of Telling Futures
In May 1877, the city’s law enforcement decided that predicting the future was a crime against public order. They dragged 'Madame Malla' from her shop, citing vagrancy, despite her having done nothing but read palms.
- The Pride of the Vagabond
A man in Whatcom chooses starvation over begging, highlighting the grim extremes of dignity and survival in the 1890s labor market.
- The Waterfront Exclusion
Citizens are being physically hustled off the docks as a new, exclusionary policy takes hold during passenger boat arrivals.
- The Coxeyites Descend on Spokane
Populist supporters and unemployed 'Industrial Army' marchers head toward Spokane, setting up a confrontation with the city's new leadership.
- Vagrants or Working Men? The Battle Over Municipal Justice
Seattle's police chief accuses a judge of letting 'dangerous characters' roam free, while the court clerk argues for leniency toward the unemployed.
- The Inhumanity of the City Jail
A plea for the humane treatment of women in Seattle's overcrowded, mixed-gender prison system.
- The City Mission's Winter Struggle
A basement mission in 1892 Seattle provides soup, shelter, and strict discipline for the city's growing population of out-of-work laborers.
- The Vagabond Philosopher of Yakima
A traveling drifter offers a bizarre, theological defense of his nomadic lifestyle to a local reporter.
- The Chain Gang Strike: When Seattle’s Jailers Fed Rebels Bread and Water
Twelve roughs on the city's Commercial Street cleanup crew walked off the job, leaving six loyal workers to finish the job. The police response? Lock them in the darkest cells until their sentences expire.
- Judge Lewis Seeks Revocation of Snohomish Liquor Licenses
After a grand jury report, Judge Lewis urged revoking liquor licenses from tavern owners operating brothels and corrupt establishments in Snohomish.
- The Jailbreak of the Electrician Who Sabotaged the City's Power
After serving months in prison for destroying the Seattle Electric Light Company’s equipment, a disgruntled former employee walked out of the mill in borrowed clothes.
- The 'Vagrant' Scourge of 1878
A Victorian-era editorial attempts to pathologize poverty and social instability in frontier Seattle by blaming 'tramps' and theft for the city’s growing pains.
- Two Famous Authors on Tour — and Haweis Fires His First Shot at Ingersoll in Seattle
The Rev. H. R. Haweis and the explorer George Kennan lecture to overflow crowds at St. Mark's and the Seattle Theater, but the city gets a piece of history: Haweis's reply to the great agnostic was written here, in two days, at a local minister's suggestion.
- The Marshal’s Club: A Vagrant’s Death on the Falmouth Harbor
When a Whatcom city marshal struck a drunk vagrant with his billy club, the man died. Now, a furious letter found under the body demands justice in Seattle.
- Don't Bond the Valley to a Dry Ditch
A Wenatchee editor warns that a $100,000 Wright-law irrigation bond would repeat the Kennewick failure—leaving settlers with debt, abandoned orchards, and no water.