The Tragic Last Notes of L. R. Shaw
A desperate local resident details his financial ruin, drug dependence, and final instructions to his family in a series of haunting letters before taking his own life in Seattle.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
L.R. Shaw ended his life on October 24th, leaving behind a series of written documents detailing his desperation. In a note addressed to his family, Shaw wrote: 'I have been trying to raise money for my counsel. If I cannot do it, I will wind up this affair very suddenly, and will do it without the least concern. There are only two ways to deal with this business, and if I cannot find one, I must dispose of it in the other.' In another letter, he detailed the burden of debt and his struggle with morphine, stating: 'The morphine seems to drive out all the natural vigor from my brain, and I haven't been able to earn a dollar in a little enterprise on which I am working. I have the best of health, but I have not had enough to pay my room rent. I intended on my return from Snohomish to go to Vancouver, B. C., but now they have heard it... and I cannot get the money.' Following an inquest, the jury returned a verdict of death by suicide, brought about by mental trouble.
“There are only two ways to deal with this business, and if I cannot find one, I must dispose of it in the other.”
Shaw’s struggle with the inability to pay room rent and his subsequent despair underscores how the precariousness of housing has been a constant, punishing force in Seattle’s history. Over a century later, the city continues to grapple with the same fundamental question: what happens to those who fall through the cracks of a system that demands money for the right to exist?
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