THE BENEFITS OF SEX AND FIRE

Fire destroyed Seattle in 1889

Some visitors to the Summer House in La Conner in 1889 are on fire. A man named Mr. Back, whom others call Berg, is sleeping in the carriage house.  He is experiencing a shunning, an ostracism by the whole of Seattle in 1889, because he is viewed as the cause of the great fire there. 

Summer House is my creation.  It's clientele consist of the entrepreneurial and the top-dog type leading men from Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, San Francisco who are in Northwest Washington State -- mostly Skagit and Whatcom Counties -- to buy, sell and develop land and businesses.  They are seeking the company of like-minded men, gossip and leads, good food and libation, comfortable lodging and sexual favor from a beautiful and refined prostitute.  The Summer House madam is Sally Summer, a mentor and employer to my main character, Emeline Cummings, who helps run Summer House.  Emeline is a quick study in the art of catering to successful men and their most basic needs and she is having no trouble making a small fortune of her own.

The Real Mary Emeline Cummings 1867-1917
and my inspiration for the fictional Emeline

Madam Sally Summer has a carriage house, and there she lodges customers if overbooked. More frequently, however, she is housing someone who is hurting -- a friend, or a friend of a friend.  Sally, as with many madams of the 1800's, has a big heart.  She also understands that having friends in every strata of society will benefit her business in countless intangible ways, and increase her very tangible personal wealth.  If someone needs a private place of healing, with no interest in all the other offerings of the establishment, come hither to the carriage house.  Enter Mr. Back.

What I am about to tell you is historically true.

Mr. Back was in the carpenter shop when he noticed a glue pot smoldering with a small fire.  He doused the fire with water, causing embers to spread.  Eventually, most all of Seattle of 1889 was destroyed by fire and everyone was thrown immediately out of work.  Mr. Back was blamed.  He experienced the tried and true social equivalent of capital punishment, shunning.  He was unemployable and without a friend.   (I'll remedy that in my fiction.)

Seattle was made of wood at that time, and the streets were narrow.  The combination of strong winds, hot and dry summer, and poor transport for fire equipment caused the total destruction, although no human died.

The mayor at that time, Robert Moran, rallied six hundred business owners and leading citizens to the armory.  Two key decisions were made.  First, Seattle would rebuild but with brick and stone, and an eye toward becoming a truly great city which meant wider streets and better community services such as a fire district.  Second, Seattle would make good on its pledge of $500 to the city of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, who had just experienced a terrible flood.  This particular decision reveals a characteristic of Seattleites as generous and honorable, something that would come into play as Seattle rebuilt to become one of the great American cities.

For me, as I am creating Summer House, Emeline Cummings and the people with whom she interacts, the story of the Seattle fire of 1889 is immensely instructive.  By and large, these are people with true grit.  These are people unacquainted with resignation and failure.  These are visionary people.  They are also generous, and they have integrity.  Mr. Back may disagree with me, but all of these laudable traits are the best of human traits.  Blame and scapegoating are also in the mix.

The upshot of the Seattle fire of 1889 in real life enflamed the best of humanity in early Seattleites.  Within a year, everyone who wanted a job, had a job.  Underground Seattle was born, as the streets  were built higher up, right over old structures.  Stone and Brick were the materials.  The population doubled to twenty thousand within a year.  Tacoma sent her sister city $10,000.  San Francisco sent $10,000.  Other cities sent a total of $120,000.  Seattle's reputation as a generous and honorable city paid off.

Seattle, after rebuilding

Mr. Back is in Emeline's life at the moment, on tablets of paper and on my computer.  Something is there between them, and I don't know what, if anything, will come of the spark.

Writing about Emeline Cummings and bringing her to life has meant a change in my life.  I have no time for reading much other than historical documents.  I camp frequently during the summer, and during these travels I find myself thinking about the late 1880's and 1890's.  The hopes and dreams I have for my own life are for survival, meaning, purpose, helping others, being part of a community I care about.  I worry about my government and what political and social changes will mean for me, my life, the life of my family.  I think about my heart and my soul and I try to find places, people, thoughts, experiences that will feed and satisfy my spirit.

Based on what I know so far about Emeline Cummings, her life and her times as I am creating them, she and I are fundamentally the same.  Technology is different.  Essential and enduring thoughts, cares and concerns, the state of one's heart and soul -- these things are the same.  And we both learn from the history of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest in general.  We are strong.  When we lose or something comes close to breaking us, we rebuild.