The Great Cherry Street Escape
A band of savvy business owners nearly outfoxed their creditors by packing up shop in the middle of the night.
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.
Some persons who have been doing business on Cherry street yesterday quietly packed their trunks and attempted to leave the city, and at the same time leave confiding creditors. They nearly succeeded in accomplishing their object, but were stopped at the wharf last night before going on board the steamer. Their trunks are now in Justice Scott’s office.
“They nearly succeeded in accomplishing their object, but were stopped at the wharf last night before going on board the steamer.”
Long before the digital age, 'skipping town' was a literal high-stakes gamble dependent on the local wharf schedule. Today, while the venue has shifted from waterfront wharfs to online marketplaces, the tension between creditors and business owners remains a staple of Seattle’s volatile economic landscape.
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