A Household Tragedy in Goldendale
A toddler’s attempt to help in the kitchen ends in the accidental scalding of her infant sibling.
A frightful accident occurred in Goldendale last week, which resulted in the death of Clara, the year-and-a-half-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Goodyear. Mrs. Goodyear had just placed the coffee pot on the breakfast table and had left the room, when her little daughter, aged four years, picked it up and, finding it too hot to hold, dropped it into the cradle where the baby was sleeping. The coffee was in a boiling state and the little one was so badly scalded that it could not survive the pain and after lingering along for two days it got relief in death.
“The coffee was in a boiling state and the little one was so badly scalded that it could not survive the pain.”
Accidents involving household hazards remain a quiet but persistent reality of domestic life. In the late 19th century, before modern emergency medical care, a severe scalding was often a death sentence for a small child.
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