WRITTEN BY PAUL DORPAT

COURTESY OF LARRY HAMILTON

The Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern train waits for riders to return from celebrating Independence Day, 1895, in Seattle. Pulling its long line of passenger cars, Engine No. 2 would require about six hours to reach Sumas at the international border. The engine was named the D.H. Gilman for one of the founders of the bankrupt railroad. Gilman was described by historian Robert Nesbit as "a shoestring operator with a talent for keeping up appearances among moneyed people." Both views look south from Madison Street.

	PAUL DORPAT

Reporting on that Thursday the Fourth, The Seattle Times noted that the streets were crowded for the grand parade of bands, marching units, unions such as the Seamens' and the Newsboys', fraternal and heritage orders such as the Swedish Club, the Salvation Army and "about 40 floats." Early in the day, despite the rain, "the waterfront was a lively place" as bands serenaded visitors — many of them from Canada — who came for the day by steamer and, no doubt, train. The Times editorial reminded readers that American liberties were prepared by English common law, although many of the English had been "ignorant of what they were, a condition in which the aristocracy and the clergy combined to keep them."

Despite its festooned engine for the Fourth, this railroad was not generally celebrating in 1895. Still feeling the effects of the national panic of 1893, its total third-quarter income was a paltry $623.17. A year later, the SLSE was foreclosed and reorganized as the Seattle and International.