A Final Attempt at Life's End
After multiple failed attempts, a Tacoma laborer collapses at home, leaving his family in poverty.
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.
Louis Michelson, a laborer residing at 2417 South C Street, died last night after announcing to his wife and four children that he had drunk carbolic acid. Michelson had made four previous attempts on his own life within the month. Despite his claims, the coroner noted an absence of burns or parched tissues consistent with acid ingestion. It is believed that Michelson, suffering from a pre-existing heart condition, succumbed to heart failure brought on by the stress of his final suicide attempt. He had recently resigned from the St. Paul Tacoma Lumber Company. His family remains in poor circumstances; he carried no life insurance, leaving behind a wife and four children, the eldest being 15.
“Michelson left a wife and four children in poor circumstances.”
This tragedy captures the stark precarity of laboring families in 1904. Without a social safety net, the death of a primary provider—compounded by the stigma of suicide—left survivors in immediate, dire poverty.
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