Tragedy at the Depot
A railroad worker takes his own life inside a company car in Everett.
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.
Daniel J. White, for some months employed as a car repairer by the Monte Cristo railroad, at 4:30 this afternoon locked himself in one of the company's cars at the depot and blew his brains out with a revolver. Deceased was an Englishman, about 30 years old, and his family resided at Whatcom. No reason can be assigned for the act.
“No reason can be assigned for the act.”
Workplace suicides in the 19th century were often reported with a clinical brevity that masked the underlying mental health crisis. Today, while the stigma surrounding these acts has begun to lift, the isolation faced by transient laborers in booming towns remains a quiet, recurring thread in the history of the Pacific Northwest.
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