by S. L. Stoner
The story models the character of Paul Sinclair after a real person of that name and follows the life story that he related subsequent to his arrest. At the age of fourteen the real Paul Sinclair ran away from his small Midwest town. He soon became the lover of a Chicago madam and her trusted right hand man. Later, after the authorities returned him home, he graduated from high school and entered a protestant seminary. He was expelled just a few months before graduating from that seminary. At that point, he became an opium addict and eventually worked as a skilled white slavery procurer in Chicago.
The story bases the transformation of the fictional Paul Sinclair on the transformation undergone by real Sinclair after he was arrested for his white slavery activities. Following that arrest, Sinclair turned remorseful about his actions toward women. Upon his release from jail and, for the rest of his life, he worked with those striving to eradicate prostitution. There is no historical evidence, however, that he ever visited Portland.
At the time of this story, many newspapers printed horror stories about white slavery. On Oregonian article reported that a Portland woman escaped from a locked room, claiming that her captor had force-fed her alcohol, opium and tobacco in an attempt to turn her into a prostitute. The man was charged and convicted. Another Portland woman was reported to have been abducted from a St. John’s trolley stop and shipped to China as a white slave.
There was a social hygiene society in Portland. There is no evidence, however, that it adopted midnight missionary tactic that pioneered by the Chicago Society and used elsewhere in the country.
The owner of Olds and Kings department store did break from tradition and decide that a five and one-half day week was a long enough workweek for his female clerks. He took an ad out in the Labor Press to make that announcement. The ad also encouraged other store owners to shorten their employees’ weekly work hours.
Columbia River Bar-Revenue Cutter and Coastal Steamer
The Columbia River Bar is three miles wide and six miles long, though it narrows to just six hundred yards wide. It is considered one of the most treacherous river mouths in the world. The story accurately explains the reason for this. Large vessels always use a bar pilot to navigate its waters. Over the years, the Bar has claimed more than 2000 ships and 700 lives. One of the worst disasters was in 1961 when three coastguard rescue boats and five crewmen were lost in a rescue attempt. Because of its danger, it is home to the only school in the United State that teaches rough weather and rough surf rescue operations. One of the training maneuvers used has the crew rolling and then righting their boat in the midst of the Bar’s roiling waters.
The United States revenue cutter, Commodore Perry, moved into service at the mouth of the Columbia in January 1903. The Perry, commissioned in 1884, was a 165-foot iron-hulled, single screw vessel. In 1904, the Perry attempted to cross the Bar and rescue two foundering ships. The Bar proved impassable and the two ships sank. In later years the revenue cutter service was combined with the rescue service to become today’s U.S. Coast Guard Service.
The description of the coastal steamer in the book, the Maggie Jane, is based on a photograph of circa 1900 coastal steamer. The photo showed that the gunwale of the loaded vessel rode perilously close to the water. This fact made it possible for the Chinese men in the story to scale the sides and board the ship. In the early 1900’s hundreds of coastal steamers transported crops, manufactured goods, lumber and passengers between the Pacific Coast ports of the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Author’s Note
While writing the Sage Adair Historical Mystery series I have encountered a number of unexpected coincidences. Dry Rot is about a carpenters’ strike for the eight-hour day. Only after the book was completed did I learn just such a strike had taken place during the same time period as in the book. And, like in the story, the carpenters won the strike.
For the book, Black Drop, I researched President Roosevelt’s Portland parade route and settled on a specific location for an assassination attempt. Only after the book was finished did I learn that, in that exact same location, on the exact same day, the police arrested a man for charging at the president. It was the only such incident occurring during his visit.
With this book, the coincidence was even more peculiar. After finishing the book and settling on the title, The Mangle, I Googled it to see if there was any other book with that same title. I didn’t find one. What I did find was a scientific article describing a theory its author calls “the mangle”. The theory describes a process that is similar to what Mae talks about in the story’s wrap-up. She noted that their individual lives had undergone a process that changed and joined them all—just as if they’d gone through a laundry mangle together. The scientific mangle theory hypothesizes that scientific discovery and advancement is the product of a process that mangles together the participants’ culture, personal bias, technology, history and happenstance to yield a new scientific “truth”. Subsequent theorists have applied “the mangle” theory to a variety of fields, including social work and cultural anthropology. It remains a viable theory.
About the Author
S. L. Stoner is a native of the Pacific Northwest who worked as a citizen change agent and as a labor union and civil rights attorney for many years.
Acknowledgments
Once again, I want to start by thanking the readers of this series. Their enthusiasm and support has encouraged Sage to keep fighting the good fight. I hope his adventure stories return the favor by encouraging their individual efforts to make the world a better place.
To the extent this series accurately reflects history, that is due to those who have done their best to preserve the past. In particular, I want to thank the staff of the Oregon Historical Society, the Multnomah County Library and Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, Holy Names Heritage Center Library. Also important to this work was a book written by Julia Allen, entitled Passionate Commitment. This book tells the true story of two women of the early 1900’s who, like the real life Sister Miriam Theresa, dedicated their lives and social work education to the endless task of improving the lives of their fellow humans.
This book in the series received special reviewing assistance from Claudine Paris, Lane Poncy, Anna Johnson and George Slanina. Many heartfelt thanks to each of them. That said, any remaining errors are solely my own.
A special thank also goes to Lane Ponsey, host of KBOO radio’s Labor Radio show, who has given the series exposure and an ear. And finally, as always, I must acknowledge my husband George Slanina whose unwavering support, kindness and always pithy, right-on observations continue to make this series possible. One can never acknowledge great husbands too often or too much.
Thank you for reading The Mangle
We invite you to share your thoughts and reactions with your library and on
Goodreads as well as on your favorite social media and retail platforms.
We appreciate your support!
Other Mystery Novels in the Sage Adair Historical Mystery Series by S. L. Stoner
Timber Beasts
A secret operative in America’s 1902 labor movement, leading a double life that balances precariously on the knife-edge of discovery, finds his mission entangled with the fate of a young man accused of murder.
Land Sharks
Two men have disappeared, sending Sage Adair on a desperate search that leads him into the Stygian blackness of Portland’s underground to confront murderous shanghaiers, a lost friendship and his own dark fears.
Dry Rot
A losing labor strike, a dead construction boss, a union leader framed for murder, a ragpicker poet, and collapsing bridges, all compete for Sage Adair’s attention as he slogs through the Pacific Northwest’s rain and mud to find answers before someone else dies.
Black Drop
In this ripping yarn, President Theodore Roosevelt has left Washington D.C., embarking on his historic train trip through the American West. Little does know that assassination aw
aits him in Portland, Oregon. The words of a dying prostitute warn Sage Adair and his allies that they will be blamed for Roosevelt’s murder. Since life is never simple, Sage also learns of young boys who need rescuing from a fate worse than death. As the presidential train and the boys’ doom rush ever closer, every crucial answer remains elusive. Who is enslaving the boys? Who plans to kill the president? Can either tragedy be stopped?
Dead Line
Sage Adair encounters murder and mayhem midst the sagebrush and pine trees of Central Oregon’s high desert. This captivating land of big skies, golden light and deadly secrets is the home of hardy and hard people–some of whom intend to kill him.
Slow Burn
Arson, murder, kidnapping and false accusations abound in this seventh book of the Sage Adair series. What begins as a simple assignment—helping the city’s firefighters unionize, catapults Sage onto firefighting’s front lines and into solving the deeper mystery of who is burning down the city and why.
Request for Pre-Publication Notice
If you would like to receive notice of the publication dates of the seventh Sage Adair historical mystery novel, please contact Yamhill Press.
