The Yakima Traveler’s Rough Ride Home
After an idyllic trip to the Spokane exposition, a local resident’s journey turns into a bureaucratic nightmare on the Northern Pacific railway.
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.
Like Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia, the Yakimite occasionally tires of his beautiful and luxuriant surroundings—the lovely homes, the fragrant flowers, the cool shade, and the clear rippling waters—and visits the outside world. Recently, many Yakimites traveled to the great exposition at Spokane. Among them was one fellow who, feeling a new-born liberty, began distributing promotional tracts about 'Sunny Yakima.' A large gentleman dressed in blue, with a star on his bosom, briefly detained him for his trouble, but he was soon released. However, his return trip proved harder. Having bought a discounted passport for travel on the Northern Pacific railway, he was instructed to have it countersigned in Spokane. In his excitement to board the train home, he forgot. When the conductor demanded the document, the Yakimite was told he must pay the difference or leave the chariot. He and two companions chose to jump from the moving train and walk the tracks back. After many hardships, he was welcomed home by his townsmen, though the story remains a 'thorn in the flesh' for him to this day.
“The rose, however, has its thorn. A large gentleman dressed in blue, with a biasing star on his manly bosom, patted our unsuspecting Yakimite on the shoulder.”
This humorous 1890 account of a transit dispute highlights the deep-seated obsession with 'boosterism' in early Yakima history. While today's residents are more likely to complain about Amtrak delays than transit authorities demanding a countersigned passport, the pride in 'Sunny Yakima' remains a potent force in local identity.
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