The Barber Who Ran for Mayor: A Dream of Detective Work
When an unsuccessful mayoral candidate applied for a municipal detective job in 1891, his bizarre, globe-trotting proposal sent the Ballard City Council into fits of laughter.
At the meeting of the Ballard City Council yesterday, applications for various offices were read, including one from W. S. Gale, the colored barber who had previously run for mayor. The council tried to maintain its dignity, but as the application was read, they burst into roars of laughter.
In his application for the office of detective, Gale wrote: 'In fetching criminals from difference states and to goe out of United States must have a little experience in try to fetch prisoners out of Mexico. I must have some experience of that kind of work and so you must understand some Spanish a little; if you dont you will get left in that country. I bein in that country and have got with some of the Spanish officers. Lots of murders and theaves break for that line to get out of America. In Santiago I have court to men in salt to murder; the town was full of sneak theaves.'
“The council tried to preserve its dignity during the reading of his application, but as it proceeded they burst into roars of laughter.”
Gale’s story serves as a reminder that before Ballard was absorbed into Seattle, it functioned as its own distinct municipality with a unique and often raucous political culture. The 'laughter' of the council highlights the casual exclusion of Black citizens from professional civic roles in the 1890s, a barrier that remains a subject of ongoing historical reckoning in Pacific Northwest labor and governance.
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