The Devil Comes to Seattle
While regional flooding scared off other traveling shows, the John Griffith 'Faust' company arrived with a wagonload of 'calcium light tanks' and stage magic to dazzle the city.
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.
The floods throughout the Northwest have tended to frighten dramatic combinations from venturing to the Sound country for fear of being unable to get away. The main attraction next week will center in the dramatic production of Goethe's 'Faust' at the Seattle Theater. The Griffith company traveled 1,300 miles to get from Missoula to Spokane Falls, when the distance was only 322 miles, due to washouts. When the company were having their calcium light tanks transferred around the washout at Market Lake, the farmers refused to touch them, fearing they would explode. Consequently, the actors had to mount the teams and drive the four-horse wagons themselves to reach the city.
“The farmers saw these calcium light tanks and refused to load or have anything to do with them, for fear they would explode.”
In 1894, Seattle was physically isolated by regional washouts, a vulnerability that echoes in the modern city’s anxiety over infrastructure resilience and climate-related connectivity. The dramatic spectacle of 'Faust'—a play promising 'terribly realistic purgatory'—served as a temporary escape from the very real logistics of surviving the harsh geography of the Pacific Northwest.
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