A Desperate Leap at Commercial Wharf
After an unemployed teamster jumped into the water, a crowd on the wharf pooled their money to help him, despite authorities questioning his sanity.
George Donoily, the teamster who was locked up in the city jail a few days ago because he was believed he contemplated suicide, attempted to drown himself by jumping off the Commercial wharf about 5 o'clock last evening. But he was pulled out and locked up again on a charge of insanity. A few seconds after the Flyer had landed at the wharf on coming in from Tacoma, when a large number of people were standing around on the wharf, Donoily turned to the crowd and said 'Good-bye,' and then, as quick as a flash, leaped into the water. A rope was secured and thrown him as he was swimming toward the ship. He grabbed the line and was hauled out without difficulty, but seemed to be exhausted and was carried into the warehouse. When someone suggested he was drunk, he rose up and said: 'I am not drunk, but I want to die! I want to die! Let me die!' The patrol wagon was summoned, and he was sent to the police station. While waiting, Frank B. Wiestling questioned him, and Donoily replied: 'Oh, I can't get work and want to die! I can't get anything to do and have no money.' As he spoke the tears stood in his eyes and his voice trembled. Mr. Wiestling and Capt. J. T. Martin suggested taking up a small subscription for him, and the hat was immediately passed around and $12.50 picked up among the crowd and given to him.
“Oh, I can't get work and want to die! I can't get anything to do and have no money.”
This story from 1892 captures the intersection of economic desperation, mental health crises, and the lack of a social safety net in Seattle's early years. The public's impulse to 'pass the hat' highlights a reliance on ad-hoc charity to handle what the city government deemed a matter for the police and jailers.
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