The Waterfront Rescue
When two boys tumbled into the cold waters of the Seattle wharf, the indifference of the crowd stood in sharp contrast to one man's bravery.
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 morning, the two little sons of Mr. Goldsmith were fishing on the wharf, back of W. A. Jennings' residence. The younger of the two, aged about six, fell from the wharf into the water, which was about five or six feet deep at that place. The older brother quickly commenced to cry for help, first for his mother, and then to call to some parties standing at a considerable distance from the shop to come and save his little brother. Mr. H. S. Lovell, who was sitting in the New England Hotel, upon hearing the cry of the boy, immediately ran to the place, sprang into the water and rescued the drowning boy. Had it not been for his timely assistance, the little fellow would in all probability have been drowned. He had already lost some time in the water, and when taken out was at first helpless. Six or seven adults were on the wharf at the time, and instead of lending any assistance, stood looking on, quite as indifferent to the pathetic appeals of the terrified little boy as the piling under the wharf, and for all that they would have done, or attempted to do, the little fellow would have been drowned in all probability.
“Instead of lending any assistance, [the adults] stood looking on, quite as indifferent to the pathetic appeals of the terrified little boy as the piling under the wharf.”
While Seattle’s waterfront has shifted from a site of casual labor and danger to a hub of global tourism, the tension between bystander apathy and communal responsibility remains a constant in urban life—a recurring theme in Seattle's rapid-growth culture.
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