The Unlucky Traveler of King County
A lonely worker injured on the job finds himself a pawn in a bureaucratic tug-of-war between the county and his employer.
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.
A few months ago, a single man came out from the East and stopped at Lumbert. After he had labored for some time in that kind of work, he became incapacitated and lost his leg. He had made little more than his board and clothes, and the operation left him with a terrible wound. His employers let him off. He had just one dollar to his name. A day or so later, he was found running short, and so he took his case to the county authorities to have him sent to the hospital at the expense of the county. 'How long has this man been in King county?' they asked. 'About ten months,' was the reply. 'Then you must take this man back to the county from whence he came, as we have our hands full to care for our own poor and those who are struggling in our own midst.'
“Then you must take this man back to the county from whence he came, as we have our hands full to care for our own poor.”
This 1888 incident of King County authorities refusing responsibility for an injured laborer reflects the long-standing, often cruel tension in Seattle's history regarding social safety nets for migrant workers. The practice of 'passing the buck' regarding destitute or injured residents remains a hauntingly familiar theme in current debates over regional housing and social service jurisdiction.
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