The 'Lingerer' and the Moral Purge of Tacoma
A fiery 1885 editorial spat reveals the tension between town boosters and a 'Law and Order' movement intent on policing the morality of the emerging city.
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 wail went forth from the Lingerer that some dear brother, who never heard a sharper note than the nosing of the church bell, seems flustered that the citizens are doing their duty in this far-away western town. The Lingerer man reclines in his chair after calling the people of Tacoma 'cranks,' 'a stagnant, now an extinct tribe,' 'fanatics,' 'busy-bodies,' 'odd-looking committee,' 'a weak sisterhood,' 'her-pooked,' 'sub-servient,' 'toppo-ned manhood,' 'a little band of silly deterrents,' and many other similar expressions of rage and hate. He reclines in his midnight chair and, after taking another cocktail, calls himself a man who can level the hills with his mighty organ. He is yet deceived; the people are not mocked. Give the bellowing calf more rope and it will soon stop its gloating sounds over virtue, truth, and all that is noble, good and pure. If the Lingerer man would take the trouble to read the papers and post himself, he would find that since the formation of the Citizens' League for Chinese, or three years ago, 75 percent of the drinking saloons minimized the nuisance and has been made afraid of it's law and of the Law and Order League.
“He reclines in his midnight chair and, after taking another cocktail, calls himself a man who can level the hills with his mighty organ.”
This 1885 editorial captures the early, aggressive push for 'law and order' in Tacoma, a precursor to the 1885 anti-Chinese expulsion riots that would soon stain the city's history. It echoes modern debates about civic morality, gentrification, and the exclusionary impulses hidden behind 'quality of life' campaigns.
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