The Hidden Cost of a Good Night's Rest
In 1877 Seattle, a local merchant’s advertisement reveals the bustling, precarious trade in second-hand bedding and the struggle to furnish a frontier home.
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.
ATTENTION! No one need sleep well if it were generally known that T. P. FREEMAN, OF THE SEATTLE VARIETY STORE, Has recently received and has for sale at astonishingly low prices, a large lot of Second-hand Mattresses, Blankets, Pillows & Bedsteads. Also a large lot of new goods of the same kind. He also takes this occasion to call attention to his large stock of House Hardware, Crockery, Glassware, Stoves, Furniture, Lamps, Coal Oil, Etc. Both second-hand and new for sale at extra low prices. Call and examine his stock at once.
“No one need sleep well if it were generally known that T. P. FREEMAN... has for sale at astonishingly low prices, a large lot of Second-hand Mattresses.”
Long before the modern era of fast-furniture and 'curb alerts,' Seattle's 1877 settlers were reliant on the second-hand market to make a house a home. Today, as housing affordability remains a crisis in the region, the circular economy of furniture continues to be a vital, if overlooked, necessity for new arrivals.
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