Scandal at the Soldiers' Home
A commandant of the Washington Soldiers' Home faces accusations of improper conduct, sparking a defensive manifesto signed by his comrades.
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 controversy has erupted at the Washington Soldiers' Home involving Commandant W. F. Gordon, who stands accused of 'intimacy' with a woman named Mrs. Robinson. Gordon, an old soldier, has issued a sharp rebuttal, calling the charges a product of 'petty spite and malice' from a man he describes as a 'chronic growler.' In a show of support, eighty-one members of the Home signed an affidavit testifying to Gordon's character and denouncing the accusers. Gordon insists the allegations are a political 'hue and cry' and that he has lived in Seattle long enough for his integrity to be known to all.
“I should be dragged into the petty spite and malice of a man who is a chronic growler and a man ambitious only to do evil.”
This reflects the long history of administrative and personal conflicts within Seattle’s institutional housing for veterans. It serves as a reminder that public institutions have always been sites of intense civic scrutiny, gossip, and power struggles.
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