An April Fool’s Joke Gone Wrong
A local office prank involving 'hard-boiled' eggs and croton oil turns into a bitter lesson in Seattle workplace etiquette.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Last Saturday, J. A. Moore did some marketing and left his groceries at his office. His associates, seeing eggs in his bag, had them boiled hard as a prank. When Moore returned, he realized he had been made the victim of an April Fool’s joke. The following morning, Moore brought in a batch of oranges for the office, and the associates, thinking he was a good sport, devoured them. However, they soon discovered that the oranges had been injected with croton oil, turning the tables on the jokers.
“The oranges were loaded with croton oil.”
Office culture in 1893 Seattle was defined by elaborate, occasionally dangerous pranks. While the 'croton oil' joke is a relic of the era, the spirit of office rivalry and the desire to 'get one over' on colleagues remains a universal, if often unprofessional, constant.
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