The Tragedy of a Forgotten Soul
After a man drowned at a Tacoma wharf, his body was left exposed among 'ravenous fishes' for a full day before a private citizen finally intervened to provide a burial.
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.
Yesterday afternoon, the Tacoma Herald reports, the remains of the man who was drowned at the wharf on Tuesday morning were conveyed to the city burial place and laid in their final resting place. The body was found Wednesday morning about ten o'clock, and laid upon the float under the wharf, where, with its ghastly features, mutilated by the ravenous fishes, it was allowed to remain exposed all day. Nobody was compelled by law to see that the respect which humanity owes—or which at least it is considered decent to pay—to the clay that once has held a soul, was rendered to the remains, and all day the corpse lay there with all the repugnant horror, and without the redeeming necessity, of a scene in a Parisian morgue. Mr. H. B. Crummer voluntarily took the matter in charge, provided a coffin, and superintended the burial. There is no coroner or officer to attend to such matters here, and it seems as if we were lacking in the administration of a civil service. Mrs. Blackwell, we learn, paid a touching tribute of respect to the friendless dead by placing a beautiful wreath of flowers in the coffin.
“Nobody was compelled by law to see that the respect which humanity owes... to the clay that once has held a soul, was rendered to the remains.”
This 1877 account highlights a gap in civic infrastructure that left a vulnerable person's remains in the public view. It echoes contemporary frustrations with how modern Seattle navigates the intersection of bureaucracy, public space, and the dignity of the deceased during the ongoing humanitarian crises on our streets.
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