The Deadly Cost of a City Election
A Tacoma land locator collapses and dies from delirium tremens following a heavy drinking binge triggered by a local bond vote.
James M. Davis, an employee of the Tacoma Land Company, died on Saturday evening at the quarters of the Bedal Gold Cure Company, at Kent, of delirium tremens, caused by a spree begun during the Tacoma water bond election. On Wednesday evening, the manager of the Bedal gold cure found Davis awaiting treatment. He was extremely nervous and crazed. Davis admitted that his spree dated from a few days before the bond election of last Tuesday at Tacoma. Isaac Anderson, general manager of the Tacoma Land Company, requested the cure company provide treatment for the man. Davis remained until Saturday night, when he died of delirium tremens, which developed soon after his arrival. At times four or five men were required to restrain him in his ravings. Davis was about 40 years of age, a native of Maine. He had been a hard drinker from boyhood. Dr. Thompson, a resident physician at Kent, says death was entirely the result of alcoholism.
“At times four or five men were required to restrain him in his ravings.”
This tragic account links the high-stakes pressure of municipal bond elections directly to the human cost of political volatility. In an era before modern addiction recovery, institutions like the Bedal Gold Cure Company operated on the fringes of medical practice, highlighting the era's desperate, often futile, attempts to manage the social fallout of alcoholism.
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