Ear: Astorian

From the Saturday, Nov. 16, 1889 edition of The Daily Morning Astorian:

• “Gimme an Astorian,” said a man, rushing hastily in yesterday morning. “There’s a friend of mine back in the settlements that’s always sending me little slips cut from newspapers back there, telling about what they think are big vegetables … I want to send him a copy of this morning’s paper with an account of that 36-pound beet … ”

Note: At first, the Ear thought this was some bizarre Victorian joke. Nope. A little research revealed that Guinness World Records says the heaviest beetroot to date, grown in the U.K., came in at 52 pounds, 14 ounces in 2019.

• The Oregonian is the authority for the statement that Jim Turk, having seen the error of his ways, is going to not only turn over a new leaf, but throw the old book away altogether, and keep “a mechanic’s and workingman’s hotel,” in Portland.

Note: James Turk was a famous crimp (shanghaier) in both Portland and Astoria. He had a seaman’s boarding house in both cities, the easier to drug and snatch unsuspecting sailors to work at sea for almost nothing.

In Astoria, the boardinghouse was on the south side of Commercial Street, between 15th and 16th streets, in the parking lot of the former Roby’s building. Theoretically, Turk retired in 1889-ish, and his sons took over the business. (Photo: Oregon Historical Society Research Library)