Tragedy Strikes Children Under Poorly Installed Building Shutters
Two young children are critically injured after a heavy iron shutter, improperly secured to the brick exterior of the Squire-Latimer building, collapsed onto them.
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.
A tragic accident occurred yesterday, leaving little Edwin critically injured and his sister Kate in what another would term a precarious state. The children were returning from a walk down the alley near the Squire-Latimer building when a heavy iron shutter, weighing nearly fifty pounds, tore the top staples that held it to the wall and crashed to the ground, striking the children. The fall saw that the little ones were seriously injured. The parents were called immediately. Dr. Goodenough, one of the first on the scene, did all he could for the helpless children. It was a pitiful sight to see little Edwin spitting blood with every breath and to look at the crushed head of Kate. The shutter had hit the boy on the right side of the head, depressing the bone, and his sister had sustained the fall of the shutter on the top of her head. Chief Jackson had all the shutters on the building taken off immediately, as they were put on in what he terms a shiftless manner. In fact, the irons on which the shutters were hung were simply driven into the brick wall without being secured from pulling out.
“Chief Jackson had all the shutters on the building taken off immediately, as they were put on in what he terms a shiftless manner.”
This 1893 tragedy highlights the 'wild west' era of Seattle construction where safety regulations were lax and profit often trumped public welfare. It serves as a stark reminder of the long-standing civic tension regarding developer accountability and the enforcement of safety codes in the city's rapidly expanding built environment.
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