The Labor Unrest on the Narrow Gauge
When Chinese track laborers struck for higher wages on the railroad, they were met with firearms and immediate termination.
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.
We learn that a rumpus arose among the Chinese graders on the narrow gauge railroad last Friday, and that the coolies went for their bosses with pistols, etc., in a style that was wild and grand; but the melee ended without bloodshed. The Celestials struck for higher wages and the result was they got 'fired out,' after which they came up this way and went to grubbing. They came with a whole fair army and full of trimmings on Saturday, and when they straggled out alongside of a flock of sheep on the road it was difficult to tell by the din which were the sheep and which were the Chinamen.
“The Celestials struck for higher wages and the result was they got 'fired out.'”
This account reflects the volatile labor environment of late 1870s Washington, where Chinese immigrant workers were subjected to both systemic exploitation and intense racialized hostility. It captures a moment of labor resistance that would eventually escalate into the anti-Chinese riots of the following decade, a dark chapter in Seattle's history that continues to inform discussions of labor rights and immigrant scapegoating.
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