A Boisterous Welcome at the Snohomish River
A festive crowd greets a delegation of Seattle visitors with a thunderous, mysterious salute.
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.
We arrived in sight of the Snohomish river metropolis at 4 o'clock and were greeted with a salute from every held eye from the hill back of town. I have no idea how many shots were fired—I did think, however, they would never let up. On every side the question was asked, 'What's up?' and echoes of the guns was the only answer one could receive. I, for one, feared the saloon men were paying a ill-deferred tribute to Hon. W. H. White. Brother Ronald claimed the noise was being given Judge Greene, while I put it down for an Indian outbreak. Well, the truth of the matter is that none knew anything about the affair, but upon nearing the town we saw what appeared to be all of Snohomish turned out; the wharf was literally filled with people, men, women, and children. The crowd elevated Judge Greene above their heads in a huge arm chair, and a procession started, under the marshalship of Hon. H. White, followed by a band with perhaps a thousand people in line. The town was beautifully decorated, and many ladies were present.
“On every side the question was asked, 'What's up?' and echoes of the guns was the only answer one could receive.”
While Snohomish today is a quiet, historic town, in 1885 it was the booming river-port rival to Seattle. The 'saloon men' and 'Indian outbreak' fears reflect the era's anxieties, but the story captures the high-stakes boosterism and social theater of small-town Washington in the territorial period.
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