Workers Surprise Their Tunnel Superintendent
A crew of men working on the Lake Union sewer tunnel show their appreciation with a gold-tipped ebony walking stick.
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 pleasant surprise party occurred at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. E. T. Morgan on Saturday evening last. The men who had been employed under Mr. Morgan as superintendent of the Lake Union sewer tunnel had determined he should not leave the city without taking with him some token of their esteem and, consequently, had appointed a committee to procure a gold-tipped ebony walking stick with a suitable inscription upon it. At 6 p.m. they met at the Lake Union shaft, inspected the stick, and appointed Mr. Samuel Price to act as presenter. Within a short time they were at Mr. Morgan's residence, and Mr. Price made an eloquent presentation speech to the surprised recipient. Mr. Morgan responded briefly, assuring the men that he would treasure their gift as long as he lived.
“The men who had been employed under Mr. Morgan... had determined he should not leave the city without taking with him some token of their esteem.”
Long before Seattle's massive modern sewer infrastructure, workers in the 1890s faced the dangerous and dark conditions of early tunnel construction. This gesture of appreciation from a crew to their supervisor highlights the social cohesion and collective identity of the city's early labor force during its rapid industrial build-out.
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