The Laundry Day Mix-up
A young immigrant from Wisconsin makes a frantic dash through Second Street in a desperate attempt to retrieve a $100 bill sewn into his undershirt.
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 man from Wisconsin determined to make his way West. Amid much weeping he tore himself from the bosom of a family of brothers and sisters. They all were making him a present, except the head of the house, who made the young man a present of a $100 bill. The fond mother, ever mindful of her boy's welfare, and regarding him as a baby in arms, made a washday undershirt and insisted that it be used to keep the $100 bill in. Wisconsin was left, and the young man arrived safely in Seattle. The first thing he did was to find employment and the second was to get his shirt washed. A day or two later, the young man turned pale, grabbed his hat, and rushed for the laundry office on Second Street. It took a great deal longer to tell what was the trouble than it did for the secretary to telephone to the laundry and find that the $100 bill had been received in good condition. The money was found, but a few minutes more would have been the death of the greenback.
“The fond mother, ever mindful of her boy's welfare, and regarding him as a baby in arms, made a washday undershirt and insisted that it be used to keep the $100 bill in.”
Long before modern banking apps and digital security, new arrivals to Seattle relied on unconventional methods to safeguard their life savings. The anxiety of losing a singular $100 bill in a growing, unfamiliar city captures the high-stakes reality for laborers in 1889, a sentiment that echoes in today's struggles with financial precarity and the high cost of city living.
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