The Doctor Who Wanted Everything
A Prince Edward Island physician wrote to a Seattle paper requesting a mountain of free market research, leading the editors to publicly shame him for his stinginess.
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.
Dr. Edwin P. Ford, of Medical Hall, Souris, Prince Edward Island, Canada, dealer in drugs, chemicals, oils and paints, wants $50 worth of information concerning this country, and to secure it has written us a letter and sent us a worthless 3-cent stamp. That some one with spare time and a larger development of benevolence may do for the doctor what we must decline, for the purpose of presenting this as a sample of many letters received by us, we give it space in this issue. He asks 20 questions ranging from the number of drug stores in Seattle, climate comparisons, the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, to population statistics and wage rates for laborers. I am sorry that I cannot send you an American postage stamp to prepay your letter to me. I fear the one I enclose will not suit.
“That some one with spare time and a larger development of benevolence may do for the doctor what we must decline, for the purpose of presenting this as a sample of many letters received by us, we give it space.”
This 1883 editorial reflects the 'booster' mentality of early Seattle, where local papers viewed themselves as gatekeepers of economic growth. Even then, the city was overwhelmed by outsiders looking for a quick fortune, a trend that echoes in modern debates about growth, migration, and the commodification of local knowledge.
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