Gambling Debt Leads to Tragedy in Ellensburg
A young painter ends his life following financial ruin and personal turmoil.
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.
Charles Braun, aged 28, a painter by trade, took two ounces of laudanum last evening with suicidal intent about 5 o'clock. He was found in his room soon afterwards, and a physician worked on him until 2 o'clock this morning, when he died. He had been drinking and gambling, and losses at the table, together with some family trouble, are believed to be the cause. His father resides at Port Townsend, and he has a mother and sister at Jacksonville, Illinois.
“He had been drinking and gambling, and losses at the table, together with some family trouble, are believed to be the cause.”
Public reporting on suicide in the 1890s was stark and unsparing, often explicitly linking deaths to 'vices' like gambling. Today's approach to the mental health crisis in Washington focuses more on the underlying trauma and the need for community support systems rather than moralizing about a person's final choices.
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