The Unlucky Dreamer’s Club
A satirical club meeting in Seattle warns members against the dangers of interpreting dreams and reporting ghost sightings.
At a meeting, Brother Gudoar spoke of a man who rushed in with a dream about a 'dancin' male chase a sum-cull boar round a yaller-cullored barn.' The speaker, taking the floor, laid out a new code for the club: dreaming of crossing a muddy stream signifies you need work; dreaming of a lost pocketbook signifies you are about to be evicted for non-payment of rent; and dreaming of a funeral procession signifies you owe the grocer $3.75. He concluded by warning that any member caught seeing ghosts or spooks would be 'cantered out of this club so fast that the tracks left behind you on the stairs will be smoking hot.'
“To dream that you are trailing along a dusty highway and lookin' for a dusty pocketbook with $50, it signifies that you are much more certain to be throwed outer de house for non-payment of rent than you am to pick up a single nickel.”
This humorous slice of local culture reveals how deeply anxieties about poverty, rent, and debt permeated daily life in 1880s Seattle. The club's mockery of 'dreaming' echoes modern debates about the gig economy—where the grind of survival leaves little room for imagination or leisure.
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