Morsels from The Daily Astorian, March 25, 1879:

• J. N. Reynolds, formerly of Astoria, has fallen heir to a considerable sum of money in Kansas. The estate wishes to hear from him through The Astorian. J.N., write to us.

• Police Court: Edward Kennedy, found in an opium den, sent up for five days in default of $10 fine ($313 now) … Mary McCarthy paid a fine of $2 ($62 now), it being the first offense, for the blessed fun of a drunk.

• Nick Squivalence has concluded there are no millions in shipping sailors, and he has given up that business, and is attending closely to keeping a hotel. Call at the Chicago House and see for yourself.

Note: Despite his protestations, it should be noted that many shanghaiers did, indeed, own hotels. James Turk was a famous example, owning hotels in both Portland and Astoria, the easier to drug and snatch unsuspecting sailors to work at sea for almost nothing. In Astoria, Turk’s boarding house was on the south side of Commercial Street, between 15th and 16th streets, in the parking lot of the former Roby’s building.

• Short dresses are very becoming to Astoria ladies in the present wet condition of the streets.

Note: That would depend on the definition of short. Images of the dresses of that era show the hem practically dragging on the ground. Perhaps a height of 1 inch off the ground could be considered “short.”

• Citizens should, at all times, be prepared to greet, with cold lead, the assassins and robbers now in our midst. Take aim, keep steady and make a sure shot. Let us have a few corpses of that ilk. They are being driven out of the valley, and seem to live here in Astoria. Spare none.