The Troubled Life of a 17-Year-Old
A Seattle teenager with a history of employment instability and violent outbursts is committed to the Steilacoom asylum.
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.
Nathaniel B. Young, a 17-year-old living at 134 Stewart Street, was ordered committed to the asylum at Steilacoom yesterday. Despite his age, his history includes stints as an elevator boy at the Arlington Hotel, a bank collector, and a brief, failed career as a navy apprentice. His parents testified that he suffered from periodic violent fits where he threatened to burn down their home and assault family members. During his examination, Young insisted he was not insane but rather the victim of a difficult home life, arguing that if he deserved punishment, he should be sent to reform school instead of an asylum.
“If I deserve to be punished, the reform school and not an asylum is the proper place to send me.”
This story offers a painful look at how the 19th-century legal and medical systems handled youth mental health, often pathologizing behavioral issues within unstable domestic environments as 'mania.'
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