A Runaway Laundry Wagon
Horses pull a laundry wagon down a steep Seattle hill, ending in a wreck that miraculously injures no one.
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.
A team of horses attached to one of the Queen City laundry wagons dashed down the Columbia Street hill from Sixth last night and came to an unexpected stop by colliding with the telegraph pole at the southwest corner of Second. Strange as it may seem, the laundry wagon was not broken and the horses, beyond being piled one upon the other and well shaken, were not injured. Officer Murray caught the horses in their wild flight down the steep hill, expecting to see a grand smashup. When they went to the ground, he unloosed the harness and stood guard until the driver arrived and relieved him of his charge.
“Officer Murray caught the horses in their wild flight down the steep hill, expecting to see a grand smashup.”
Columbia Street and Second Avenue remains a steep, central corridor in downtown Seattle. While laundry wagons have long since vanished, the danger of steep, rain-slicked hills remains a constant concern for modern transit and urban design.
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