The Crusade Against Seattle Saloons
A visiting revivalist prepares to lead a campaign of song and prayer against the city’s drinking establishments.
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.
Mrs. Thompson-Heonas, who has begun revival work here, is attracting more attention daily. This morning she had quite an audience at the Methodist Episcopal Church and announced an intention to begin a crusade against the saloons next Monday. The exact nature of the crusade is not stated, but those who ought to know say that Mrs. Heonas, with her followers, will personally visit the saloons, one after the other, and pray and sing with the proprietors and habituees. In that case, doubtless, the services will be very interesting.
“Mrs. Heonas, with her followers, will personally visit the saloons, one after the other, and pray and sing with the proprietors and habituees.”
Long before modern battles over nightlife regulation and public space, Seattle saw early moral crusades that used public shaming and presence to contest the role of alcohol in civic life. This 1887 report captures the era's reformist fervor, foreshadowing the complicated relationship between Seattle’s religious moralists and its bustling urban bar culture that would persist until Prohibition.
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