Refugees Fleeing the Russian Empire Reach Tacoma
Two Jewish merchants arrive in Tacoma after a thousand-mile sledge journey to escape military persecution in Vladivostok.
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.
Among the passengers on the Boston Steamship Company's steamship Shawmut, which arrived this morning from the Orient, were Augustus Libby and Corellius Hoff, Jewish merchants of Vladivostok, who received 24 hours' notice from the Russian military authorities to leave the country. They were compelled to travel by sledges more than a thousand miles to the nearest port on the Korean coast, surviving arrest and suspicion from both Russian and Japanese military officials along the way. After enduring many hardships, they joined the Shawmut at Yokohama, where they were closely watched by Japanese special service officers who suspected they might be Russian spies.
“They had to abandon their business and sell out at a heavy sacrifice, and as egress by sea was blocked... they were compelled to travel by sledges more than a thousand miles.”
This account captures the human cost of the Russo-Japanese War, which reverberated across the Pacific to Tacoma. Refugee crises, the surveillance of 'outsiders,' and the disruption of global trade are as relevant to Pacific Northwest news today as they were in 1904.
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