Suspended by the Wrists: A Perilous Fall in Downtown Seattle
A local painter narrowly avoided tragedy after a ladder slipped and left him dangling from meat hooks.
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.
George Dargenn, a colored painter, was painting the front of a meat market at the corner of Third avenue and Yesler way this morning when the ladder on which he was working slipped and fell. As he fell he grabbed at a wire screen over the doors, missed a firm grasp, and his two wrists caught on two meat hooks at one side of the door, leaving him hung there.
His screams attracted the attention of market men, who took him down. Although his wrists were lacerated, the wounds were not thought to be dangerous.
“His two wrists caught on two meat hooks at the side of the door and there he was suspended.”
This bizarre 1899 industrial accident, occurring right on the corner of Third and Pike, highlights the precarious nature of labor in early Seattle—an intersection that today is a bustling transit hub where the city's ongoing struggles with street safety and worker protection continue to resonate.
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