The Unintended Comedy of a Seattle Home-Grown Play
A young Seattle playwright attempts a 'powerful' American drama, only to accidentally create a farcical scene involving nightshirts, chin-wiping, and a very confused father-in-law.
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.
A young gentleman of this town is now hard at work upon a new drama, which he claims will soon be placed upon the boards of one of the theaters here. It is a purely American drama and a very powerful one. In the third act of the play, the curtain rises to show old Money-bags, the stern parent, lying in bed going in for a cold-blooded murder at midnight to land in the grip of an impecunious but daring young man in the yard. Old Money-bags pops out: 'Who's there? What's all this?' The young man pulls his arms sternly and responds, 'I wouldst flee with thy daughter.' 'Curse on thee, villain!' roars the father. Here the daughter breaks in with, 'Oh, pa, wipe off your chin.' 'I will not wipe off my chin! No, never!' thunders out the stern parent. 'Then pull down your vest, pa, do,' responded the loving daughter. 'Ungrateful hussy! How can I pull down my vest? Don't you see I'm in my night-shirt?' shrieks the distracted parent. 'Ah, we have erred. Give us thy blessing, father-in-law,' the young man puts in, and he and the young woman flop down on their knees in the damp grass of the door-yard. 'Aha! Bless thee, my children, bless thee,' answers the old man, spreading his hands benevolently. 'I will bount thee in business, my son, and thou shalt yet be cashier of a savings bank, and elope in better style than thou hast planned.' The curtain falls amid what the writer of the play expects will be the wildest applause of the enraptured audience.
“Ungrateful hussy! How can I pull down my vest? Don't you see I'm in my night-shirt?”
This 1870s snippet offers a rare glimpse into the cultural life of early Seattle, when local theater was a scrappy, DIY endeavor. It mirrors today's 'Silicon Forest' creative scene—where earnest, slightly awkward ambitions are often part of the city's unique charm as it grows into its own identity.
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