The Cabbies' Ghost
Tacoma’s hackmen hold a desperate parade to break a jinxed night on Pacific Avenue.
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.
Near midnight last night the Tacoma hackmen were seized with a sudden spasm of superstition. To break the hoodoo they believed had come over them, they would go to any trouble. Finally, a plan was hit upon. The hackmen believe that if a certain elderly Tacoma man, whose name none of them know, but who is known by sight to all of them, passes between them and their hacks, a hoodoo is on. Last night, the cabbies believed that he had passed between them and their teams when they were not watching. At any rate, not a hack got a load the whole night long. It was the poorest night for business that had been seen in months. Finally, a conference was called. The object of the meeting was to break the hoodoo. After arguments had been heard from 'Mike,' 'Frenchy,' and 'Mack,' it was decided that a parade of every hack in the city would in a way serve to break the Jonah that had settled. The hacks started out. There were about ten in line and all paraded down Pacific Avenue as slow as the horses could move and still be said to be moving. Up and down the street they drove and finally settled down in their original stands. Business was better for the balance of the night.
“To break the hoodoo they believed had come over them, they would go to any trouble.”
Long before ride-sharing apps, Tacoma's transport workers looked for supernatural scapegoats when the market went cold. The superstition of the 'hoodoo' man passing between them highlights how precarious the gig economy felt for hackmen on Pacific Avenue in the early 1900s.
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