The Tragic End of a Nurseryman
After struggling with delirium tremens, a once-respected Tacoma horticulturalist takes his own life while under the care of the county sheriff.
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.
This morning, the report was rife that L. Durgin had committed suicide at the residence of Sheriff Winner. Upon investigation, it was found to be true. He had stabbed himself to the heart with a pair of shears. Coroner H. C. Bostwick summoned a jury, who examined the body found upon a sofa in Mr. Winner's sitting room. The shirt was drenched with blood from a fatal wound in the left side; the right hand was grasping the shears. Sheriff Winner testified: 'Durgin was brought to my house yesterday. He had been on a big drank in Olympia and Tacoma. He was suffering from delirium tremens. His son wanted him sent to the hospital, but I said the asylum was the place for him. I took him home with me, intended to take him to the asylum today. We left him in the sitting room on a lounge at about 10 o'clock.' Eli Robinson, who was staying in the adjoining room, testified that he heard a noise like someone striking their body, but concluded all was right. In the morning, he found Durgin dead. Durgin was a native of the United States, aged 50 years, and a respected horticulturalist who had introduced many plant varieties to the Sound.
“He had been on a big drank in Olympia and Tacoma. He was suffering from delirium tremens.”
This tragedy underscores the era's lack of humane mental health support, where the 'asylum' was the only state-sanctioned destination for those suffering from substance-induced psychosis. Today's Seattle struggles with a similarly fragmented response to the intersection of homelessness, addiction, and acute mental health crises.
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