The Smallpox Scare on the Seattle Waterfront
When a stranger fell ill at his Seattle lodgings, he didn't wait for quarantine—he boarded a steamer for Portland, leaving the city in a state of nervous apprehension.
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.
On Monday evening, Drs. Baker and Calhoun were called to see a young man who was sick, and on visiting his lodgings, found him suffering from smallpox. The disease was in its incipient stage, but not sufficiently advanced to be highly contagious. The young man, likely because he was a stranger here, dressed shortly after his diagnosis, left his apartment, and it is said took the steamer Alida for Portland, where he had acquaintances. While this course may be deemed injudicious, under the circumstances, many would probably have done likewise.
“This course may be esteemed injudicious on his part; but under the circumstances many would probably have done likewise.”
Public health crises have long sparked a tension between individual agency and community safety in Seattle. Just as 19th-century authorities scrambled to track infected travelers on Sound steamers, modern city officials continue to navigate the friction between personal mobility and public health containment.
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