Sunday School Picnics at Alki Point
The community gathers for a mass outing at Alki, featuring clambakes and speeches under a clear sky.
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 Thursday last all ordinary avocations were nearly suspended in Seattle, and the day devoted to innocent enjoyment, in which nearly, or quite, one half of the population participated, including a very large proportion of women and children. A picnic was held at Alki Point under the auspices of the Ancient Order of United Workingmen, in which five Sunday Schools united, with an estimated attendance during the day of 1,500, employing a steamer with a large barge in tow. An address of welcome was pronounced by Judge Scott, and an oration delivered by Mr. A. W. Jones, after which followed a clambake and various amusements, all of which passed off without an untoward event. Another picnic by the members and Sunday School of Trinity Parish was held at a beautiful cove, twelve miles from the city, and attended by all that the steamer could carry in two trips.
“The weather was as beautiful as could be desired and the bay as still as a mill pond.”
Alki Point remains one of Seattle's premier public gathering spaces. This account captures the social life of a much smaller city, where a holiday could pause the entire town's 'ordinary avocations.'
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