Seattle Gripped by Baseball Fever
When the Chicago White Stockings clinched the pennant in 1886, Seattle telegraph offices became the scene of a downtown riot of excitement.
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.
The final result of the 1886 baseball season arrived today, creating a feeling of wild exultation. The uncertainty of the team's standing had been a fever in the city, and when the returns from the Philadelphia games were finally reported, it is doubtful if the citizens of Seattle had ever witnessed such scenes before. Men crowded, elbowed, and jostled each other in desperate attempts to get a look at the little strip of paper that unrolled itself as the instrument clicked out the result of each inning. When the last inning had been played and the victory announced, the big crowds yelled themselves hoarse in their excitement. Extra editions were gotten out by the afternoon papers, and the newsboys gave the Chicago victory the call over the anarchist trial in their efforts to sell their papers.
“Men crowded, elbowed, and jostled each other in desperate attempts to get a look at the little strip of paper that unrolled itself as the instrument clicked out the result.”
Long before modern instant updates, Seattleites in 1886 relied on the telegraph to follow professional sports. The sheer intensity of the crowds waiting for ticker-tape results shows that sports fanaticism is a timeless feature of civic life in the city.
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