Same Streets
← All stories

A Deadly Mistake at the Livery Stable

A local stableman survives a poisoning after accidentally consuming carbolic acid instead of whisky.

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.

By mistaking a bottle of carbolic acid for whisky, Ed Bishop, employed in the Bryan Brothers livery stable, had a narrow escape from a horrible death last night. Mr. Bishop had not been feeling well for several days and went to a locker where a small bottle of whisky was kept for a drink. In the locker was a small flask of carbolic acid and by mistake he took a drink from the bottle of poison. Discovering his mistake, a physician was hastily sought and the unfortunate man taken to the hospital, where emetics and a stomach pump relieved him of the poison. His lips and throat were badly seared by the fiery fluid.

“His lips and throat were badly seared by the fiery fluid.”

— Printed in The Evening Statesman (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903
Then · 1903123 years apartNow · 2026

Accidental ingestions remain a common emergency in the modern era, though the casual storage of industrial poisons like carbolic acid alongside spirits highlights the lack of modern pharmaceutical regulations in the early 1900s.

The original page

The Evening Statesman (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903-07-31. Library of Congress, Chronicling America.

From readers

No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.

About this story

From
The Evening Statesman (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, JUL 31, 1903, Page 8
Rights
Public domain
Place
46.20552, -118.51743 · placed automatically
The paper in the Library of Congress catalog ↗