The River Merchant’s Gamble
A bold entrepreneur stakes his future on a new steam-powered shop boat, promising Seattle-level prices to the remote logging camps of the Snohomish River.
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.
To the People of Seattle and Snohomish River: I am building a steamer on Hood Canal, 50 feet long and 16 feet wide, to trade on the river with the settlers. I will trade with them for hay and oil, which up to this day they have been unable to sell. I will furnish them goods for less than Seattle retail prices on the Snohomish River. As soon as the boat is finished, I will put it alongside the Port Gamble route and will sell goods at cost. A. Baine, last year, brought into Seattle more furs than any other trader on the Sound. The merchants of Seattle are fitting all the goods. Baine in good style. No shoddy goods will be sold. Everything will be new and clean. I guarantee to sell as cheap as the largest store in Seattle. Respectfully, A. Baine.
“The merchants of Seattle are fitting all the goods. Baine in good style. No shoddy goods will be sold.”
A. Baine’s plan to bring 'Seattle-level' prices to remote river settlers echoes the ongoing struggle for equitable access to goods and services in Washington’s more isolated or gentrifying corners. Today’s mobile retail and delivery apps essentially automate what Baine was attempting with a 50-foot steamer: cutting out the middleman to reach the consumer directly.
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