The Seattle Lottery Scandal of 1876
A local editor confesses his regret for backing a 'legal' lottery that turned the city into an open gambling hell.
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.
There is probably no position in life more thankless and unpleasant than that of an independent editor. If he performs his duty, he incurs the hostility of the vicious and even his own friends. We are forced to acknowledge we have not always maintained our own standards. A case in point is now agitating this community. An act was passed by the Legislative Assembly creating a lottery, ostensibly for the improvement of the Snoqualmie road. It was generally understood that the act was intended to enable Mr. Yesler to dispose of valuable estate in this city. Under the color of law, Seattle is today an open gambling hell, in which representatives of all classes participate. On Monday last, upon the public square, we witnessed a scene that ought to shock the sensibilities of every citizen: a Christian minister and a notorious keeper of a brothel in close conversation while eagerly watching the turn of the wheel in which they had mutually staked their money. This system, which corrupts and demoralizes, is protected by law, while men who carry on the same games without a license are regarded as criminals. The lust of gain, the greed to become rich without labor, is the consuming passion of the age, and woe to that community that panders to this unholy passion.
In 1876, Seattle’s establishment used 'civic improvement' as a legal cover for state-sanctioned gambling, sparking a moral outcry. Today, Seattle faces similar tensions where the promise of public benefit is often wielded by private interests to bypass social responsibility—a recurring echo of the city's early, rough-and-tumble legislative history.
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