A Child's Fatal Accident in Seattle
A tragic household accident claims the life of a four-year-old boy on the West Side.
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.
On Friday last, a little four-year-old boy of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Brady, who live on the West Side, met his death by being severely scalded. The circumstances attending the accident, as near as we can learn, are as follows: The lady of the house had a boiler on the stove, about half full of boiling water. Having occasion to replenish the fire, she lifted the boiler off the stove and set it down behind her. In some manner the little boy, who was playing near her, ran backward and fell into the boiler. The lady was so excited by the cries of the child that she was unable to pull him from the boiler. The husband, who was in another room, then came forward quickly and took the child from the boiler, but it was too late to save his life. After suffering great pain for about two hours, his sufferings were relieved by death. The sympathy of neighbors and friends is extended to the afflicted parents in their bereavement. On Sunday the child was attended to its last resting place by numerous friends of the family.
“The lady was so excited by the cries of the child that she was unable to pull him from the boiler.”
Accidents involving boiling water were a common, terrifying feature of domestic life in a time before modern safety-coded appliances. This tragedy reflects the visceral dangers of 19th-century living spaces where cooking and childcare occupied the same immediate, unshielded floor area.
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