The Scandal at the Soldiers' Home
A hospital doctor abruptly resigns his post and vanishes with the teenage daughter of a veteran, leaving behind incriminating letters and a local firestorm of gossip.
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.
At the Soldiers' Home, for the past week, the scandalmonger has been busy in ferreting out a report which has become the common topic of conversation. On June 30, Dr. J. C. Donaway, who had been in charge of the Soldiers' Home hospital, handed his resignation to Superintendent Coffman and left for other fields, it is said, in company with the daughter of one of the inmates of the home. The irate father has traced the couple as far as Seattle and has secured letters of an incriminating nature from the doctor to the girl. The girl is past eighteen, while the doctor is a married man and has grandchildren. Dr. D. A. Gore, of Orting, is attending to the sick at the hospital until another physician can be secured to fill the vacancy.
“For the past week the scandalmonger has been busy in ferreting out a report which has become the common topic of conversation.”
This incident exposes the power imbalances inherent in institutional care settings, where those with authority—like the doctor here—often operated with dangerous levels of impunity. It serves as a reminder that the 'scandal' of the day was often the only form of accountability for predatory behavior in early 20th-century Washington.
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