A Desperate Escape in a Boarding House
After years of alleged domestic abuse, a young woman in a Third Avenue boarding house attempts to end her life.
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.
The wife of John Myers took poison in their rooms at a boarding house at 1114 Third Avenue, yesterday afternoon at 2:30 p.m., but was saved from death by the landlady. Mrs. Myers is a pretty, brown-eyed little woman who has been married for five years to a man whose second wife she is. The husband, a sandy-complexioned man of 30 years, has until recently worked in a mill at Ballard. It is alleged that he is intemperate, and guests at the house where they stay claim his cruel treatment of her has driven her to this rash act. Mrs. Myers came here about a year ago from Indiana, where her family were farmers. Mr. Maddocks, the proprietor of the Penobscot house, stated that Myers and his wife had lived happily with no suspicion of discord until a short while ago, when they quarreled and the wife made complaint to the police. Myers has been very despondent, and his shameful treatment drove the girl to the point of desperation. On the day of the attempt, a lady boarder asked Mrs. Myers to take a ride, but she refused, saying she had been crying and did not want to be seen. An hour later, Myers came to the door and asked the landlady to come and view his wife, claiming she had taken something. The landlady found Mrs. Myers lying in a dazed condition, and the husband sitting by not knowing what to do. The landlady began shaking her and walking her up and down the room, and with the aid of coffee and water, Myers finally summoned a doctor who was able to save her.
“She had been crying so much that her eyes were red and she did not want to be seen.”
This account of domestic violence at 1114 Third Avenue highlights the isolating nature of private boarding houses in 1890s Seattle, where neighbors were the only shield against abuse. Today, the location is a high-density area near the heart of downtown, but the struggle for safety and escape remains a recurring, urgent theme in Seattle's housing crisis.
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