The Unlucky Commute to Ballard
A streetcar motorman's decision to maintain speed leads to an aromatic disaster on the Ballard line.
Car No. 40 on the West Street and North End road met with a singular accident accompanied by disagreeable consequences at noon yesterday morning. As the car was passing the bridge near Dr. H. A. Smith's residence, at Boulevard, going to Ballard, the motorman noticed a polecat crossing the track just in front of the car, when he turned on full speed and ran over the little animal, cutting it in two. Immediately afterwards, the motorman, the conductor, and fifteen passengers wished he hadn't. This fully explains the peculiar perfume on Ballard avenue on the arrival of the car at Ballard yesterday morning.
“Immediately afterwards, the motorman, the conductor, and fifteen passengers wished he hadn't.”
Early Seattle transit was a wild, often literal collision with the local fauna. While modern light rail riders might complain about delays or crowding, the nineteenth-century commuter had to contend with the occasional skunk-induced evacuation of the entire carriage.
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