Tragedy at the Barrel Factory
A young worker loses his life in a horrific industrial accident at the Seattle Manufacturing Company.
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.
Fred Tallent, a young man aged about 30 years, an employee of the barrel factory, while working at the barrel factory yesterday evening, slipped and fell backward into one of the immense steam vats used to soften the wood. Before the young man could be extricated from his peril and the vat, he was fatally scalded. Medical help was summoned, but too late to do any good. The accident was instantaneous, and he had only been working in the factory a couple of days.
“Before the young man could be extricated from his peril and the vat, he was fatally scalded.”
This industrial tragedy highlights the extreme dangers inherent in the unregulated, rapid-growth era of Seattle's manufacturing sector. Today's strict workplace safety protocols (OSHA) were born from the countless stories of workers like Tallent who were once considered expendable fuel for the city's economic engine.
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