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Category: Random News from the Newspapers on Microfilm Collection

Spirit Telegraphy in Puyallup

Spirit Telegraphy in Puyallup

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library Yes, I would agree that the telegraph operator profiled in the following article didn’t get out much. A very unusual story found in The Tacoma Herald, July 21, 1877: Spirit Telegraphy “PUYALLUP, July 16, 1877.–It was my privilege to visit the office of a telegraph operator a few days ago, and witness some rather novel performances. It was the old story of ‘Spirit manifestation’ repeated….

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Mutiny on the Aberdeen

Mutiny on the Aberdeen

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library In the last few years we have read about cruise ship vacations gone bad, to the point where the passengers form a “mutiny.” As we can see by the May 31, 1900 article from Port Townsend’s Weekly Leader, this sort of thing is nothing new: CONDITION ABOARD OF THE ABERDEEN Wild Rumors Circulated to the Effect that Passengers Had Mutinied. INSPECTORS OF VESSELS SEVERELY CRITICISED…

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Water Witches

Water Witches

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library Do you believe in water witchcraft? The following article was found in the October 15, 1891 issue of the Big Bend Empire, from, appropriately enough, Waterville, Washington. A small chunk of the article is missing so I have tried to transcribe this around it. Water Witches “Witches used to be held in fear and abhorrence, in the olden times. People suspected of dealing in the…

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A.B. Ernst

A.B. Ernst

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: Time has rewarded the Dutchman who ran the potato-bug newspaper, while The Argus is now mostly a political footnote in Washington State political history. The election of 1896 was preceded by one of the most emotionally charged campaigns in the history of the United States. William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic and Populist parties nominee, had excited a large portion of the agrarian and Western population…

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Dry Utopia in Mason County

Dry Utopia in Mason County

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: We are in the upper lefthand corner. We are on the edge. We are an experiment. Compared to the rest of the Lower 48, Washington State has always been an inviting place to start anew and try out ideas that would not be allowed elsewhere. The book Utopias on Puget Sound, 1885-1915 by Charles Pierce LeWarne outlines the collective settlements of Freeland, Home, and Equality….

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The Northwestern Industrial Army and the Battle at Sprague

The Northwestern Industrial Army and the Battle at Sprague

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: In the midst of one of the worst economic depressions of the 19th century, thousands of unemployed workers were called upon nationwide to march in protest at Washington D.C. in 1894. They gained the nickname “Coxey’s Army” after their Ohio-based leader, Jacob Coxey. The Coxeyites in the Pacific Northwest were among the most radical followers, and dubbed themselves the Northwest Industrial Army. If you consider…

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“Sensation John” Brings the Confederate Cause to Washington Territory

“Sensation John” Brings the Confederate Cause to Washington Territory

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: The fun part about murky plots and conspiracies is that they are just that– murky, leaving a mystery for historians to argue about for decades. Even at the time the daring plan of Confederate agents in Victoria B.C. to capture a Port Townsend-based Revenue Cutter was exposed, rival newspapers could not agree on the facts of the case. The following article was found in the…

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Blackie Carroll and Irish Slim, a Couple Rotten Yeggs

Blackie Carroll and Irish Slim, a Couple Rotten Yeggs

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: The term “yegg” really has some power to it and was used frequently by reporters in the course of telling the story of Blackie Carroll and Irish Slim. Melisa Sevall, a Public Services librarian who had worked in the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center Library before the WSL Central Library staff, pointed me to the reference work, Language of the Underworld / by David W. Maurer…

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The boundaries of free speech are tested, Tacoma, 1916

The boundaries of free speech are tested, Tacoma, 1916

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: I stumbled across a legal case in Washington State history that deserves to be revisited. The following news nugget was found at random in the Morning Olympian for May 5, 1916:   DEFAMER OF GEORGE WASHINGTON GUILTY  JURY RETURNS WITH VERDICT AFTER 90 MINUTES  “TACOMA, May 4.–Paul R. Haffer was found guilty of libel and defamation of character when he said that George Washington drank more…

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Spooky Spokane Falls Enjoys the Luxury of a Haunted House

Spooky Spokane Falls Enjoys the Luxury of a Haunted House

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library: Three mysteries emerge from an episode back when Spokane was known as Spokane Falls, one of them concerns a ghost, another is geographic, and the last is bibliographic. No, I’m not talking about a spirit scouring the online catalog– that is called BOOlean searching (heh-heh, get it?). This series of questions emerge from the following article in the Spokane Falls Review, March 21, 1885: SPOOKS…

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