“Persons being introduced have an opportunity for conversation, and are immediately set at ease by the person introducing giving the place of residence and the business of each... Remember that people are fond of talking of their own affairs.”
- Hill's Manual of Social and Business Forms, Thomas E. Hill, 1891
For the benefit of readers who are not already acquainted with me, a few brief facts of my life, pertinent to the topics I intend to address in these writings, might be in order.
I live in Port Townsend, Washington, a beautiful little town situated several hours northwest of Seattle, on the corner of the Olympic Peninsula. In the late Victorian era, Port Townsend was a booming community, its port second only in the U.S. to New York.* An economic depression in the 1890’s caused a virtual diaspora of the population, and in some ways could be said to have frozen the city in time. Today Port Townsend is booming once more, and prides itself on being Washington’s Victorian Seaport.
*Cynics like to say that it was only second in terms of the weight of goods moving through the port, and most of the poundage was that of weighty old-growth timber. Details, details...