The Unlucky Entrepreneur of Fourth of July
A man’s ambitious plan to capitalize on the holiday crowds turns into a street-side cautionary tale when his dray and goods go missing.
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.
Harry Starr, an enterprising young man, sought to make an honest penny out of the large crowd of people that thronged the city during the recent Fourth of July celebration. He conceived the idea of a dray, and hired a team and a large dray, one of those with a canvas cover, from E. H. Hewitt. He rigged a fanciful awning over the dray and purchased a stock of ice-cold lemonade, soda water, and other refreshments. He was up long before daylight on the morning of the Fourth, constructing the stage, and by 9 o'clock in the morning, his stock was ready and he mounted the driver's seat and started out. His luck was fairly good, but he felt that he could do even better, so he reasoned that it was the Fourth of July and he would make a killing in the afternoon. He decided to go into the residence portion of the city. While driving down one of the streets, he saw a team ahead, and it required his attention to avoid a collision. He jumped down to attend to one of the horses, and when he returned to the dray, he was amazed to find his dray and contents had disappeared. The team was being driven at a rapid speed by a person who was not to be identified. The remainder of his stock was found, and the team was located later, but the day's profit was gone.
“He was up long before daylight on the morning of the Fourth, constructing the stage, and by 9 o'clock in the morning, his stock was ready and he mounted the driver's seat and started out.”
Harry Starr's short-lived Fourth of July business represents the timeless struggle of the small-time independent street vendor in a rapidly growing city. Even in 1888, the hustle for a 'killing' during big civic events was a hallmark of Seattle's commercial character, often ending in the same unpredictable chaos that defines contemporary retail street life.
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