A Floral Welcome for the Papal Delegate
Thousands of roses decorated the Tacoma Hotel for the visiting representative of Pope Leo XIII, sparking a debate over Seattle’s 'modest' standing.
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.
In anticipation of the arrival of Mgr. Satolli and his party in Tacoma, fully 1,000 choice roses were sent to the rooms at the Tacoma Hotel. There were two large baskets full of La France and Jacqueminot roses, besides a large number of white ones. The roses were used in decorating a suite of private parlors overlooking the mountain. Ninety members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians met the party at the wharf, and they were escorted to the hotel in carriages. Three hundred people were presented to Mgr. Satolli at an informal reception, after which he pronounced a papal blessing. Dr. O’Gorman, speaking for Satolli, said: 'He holds Tacoma not less than Seattle, but more so the city of roses. Seattle is modest and he, in expressing praises of her, was equally modest. He realizes that Seattle’s ambitions are high, but he thinks that Tacoma meets and overlaps them, and that she has foundations for them.'
“He holds Tacoma not less than Seattle, but more so the city of roses.”
The late 19th-century 'city rivalry' between Seattle and Tacoma was fierce and deeply rooted in infrastructure and economic speculation. Today, the regional rivalry has largely softened into a shared struggle for housing affordability and transit connectivity within the I-5 corridor.
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