A Diplomatic Disaster in North Yakima
A diplomatic incident erupts after Olympia visitors leave behind a scathing pamphlet mocking the residents of North Yakima.
The Olympia excursionists, by the accident of Wednesday, were enabled to feast their eyes on the attractions of North Yakima. They returned here about two o'clock a. m., and letting out their band proceeded to serenade Mayor Nichols and the guests of the Hotel Yakima. While here they were treated with every courtesy and consideration, which they repaid by circulating a paper containing the most scurrilous and untruthful tales regarding the climate, productions, and conditions of Yakima. Evidently Olympia’s social, moral, and intellectual characteristics, of which the paper so glowingly speaks, are nothing more than boorishness and impertinence.
“Evidently Olympia’s social, moral and intellectual characteristics, of which the paper so glowingly speaks, are nothing more than boorishness and impertinence.”
This reflects the intense regional pettiness of late 19th-century Washington, where rivalries between small cities were often treated as existential conflicts, punctuated by formal delegations and newspaper brawls.
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