A Final Leap in Snohomish
A railroad laborer ends his life in a moment of despair at a local saloon.
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.
At an early hour last night, a man named Alex Monroe, a railroad laborer, leaped from the back door of the Mug saloon into the river below, presumably in a fit of temporary insanity. Instant search was made with boats, but the body could not be found, and the man was undoubtedly drowned. About 7 o'clock Monroe entered the saloon and ordered the drinks and a lunch at the counter. Having finished, he refused to pay for dinner, and when he was pursued, he ran out the back door onto the platform overlooking the river, shouted 'Here goes,' and leaped into the darkness. The body has not yet been recovered.
“Running out the back door on to the platform overlooking the river, he shouted: 'Here goes,' and leaped into the darkness.”
The riverfront in Snohomish was once a rough-and-tumble industrial edge, far removed from its present-day status as a historic tourist district. The tragic event highlights the precarious, transient lives of railroad laborers who built the region's infrastructure, often left to the mercy of the river and societal neglect.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.