The Wanderer of Everett
A man allegedly shanghaied and rescued by police vanishes again, leaving behind unanswered letters and a history of unexplained absences.
Everett police are wondering where Fred Fredericks, the man from Milwaukee who, he alleges, was shanghaied and kept on board a ship for three years until he was landed in Everett, has again disappeared. Fredericks left police headquarters over a week ago and worked one day in the Maize saloon. The proprietor does not know where he went. A letter arrived for Fredericks Friday, and although he was so anxious to get an answer, he has not called for it, and does not know it is there. The writer informs him that at present he cannot send him money for his fare to Milwaukee. There is a strong belief he has left Everett for all time. Milwaukee friends say he was always subject to what the Germans call 'wanderlust,' and several times before has wandered away for two to three years at a time. The police are wondering whether he has again been attacked by this strange mania.
“The police are wondering whether or not he has again been attacked by this strange mania, and disappeared again.”
This story touches on the precarious life of the transient worker in the early 1900s Pacific Northwest, caught between the labor exploitation of 'shanghaiing' and the societal marginalization of those labeled as having a 'mania' for wandering.
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