A Love-Sick Man's Final Goodbye
After leaving his friend's house in the Sixth Addition, a 22-year-old man warned he was off to end his life in the bay.
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.
Henry Dodt, aged 22, said by Louis J. Princhtel, a barber, not to be in his right mind, tonight left at Princhtel's home in the Sixth addition, bidding Princhtel's family goodbye and stating that he was going to jump into the bay and drown himself. Unrequited love may have precipitated Dodt's suicidal mania. The police were notified two hours after Dodt left Princhtel's house.
“Unrequited love may have precipitated Dodt's suicidal mania.”
Public reporting on mental health crises and suicide was often handled with a mix of moral judgement and sensationalism in the 1890s, whereas today's coverage focuses on providing resources and destigmatizing the conversation. The 'Sixth addition' mention reflects the rapid, often uncoordinated expansion of Seattle and Tacoma during the late 19th-century land booms.
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