The Newspaper Editor Who 'Drowned' in the Sound
After an editor’s unexpected delay while traveling to report on the regional resources of Washington, his local readers spiraled into a panic—leading to a very awkward, very alive homecoming.
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.
Some of our friends thought we had been drowned because we were away about a week longer than anticipated, and they failed to receive satisfactory accounts of our whereabouts. The consequence was that on our return last Tuesday evening, the hands in the office, as well as several citizens of the place, were engaged in trying to learn where we were, in place of working on the paper; therefore, we are compelled to furnish our readers only half a paper this week. Beside, we would rather be drowned a dozen times than occasion so much worry and anxiety again, and that needlessly. During the past three years, we have traveled in a canoe or small boat more miles than perhaps any other citizen of the county. In all this time we never received an injury or met with an accident occasioned by the roughness of the Sound or the rivers. At La Conner and Stanwood we learned that a first-class scare had been created over our absence. Although we had repeatedly been away before nearly as long without exciting comment, the very improbable supposition was currently endorsed that we had recklessly ventured somewhere in a small boat and were already drowned. When we learned at La Conner of this excitement, we immediately telegraphed home and arrived at Stanwood in time to stop excitement there. We found that their chief cause of anxiety arose from the fact that they had received no papers further than those noting our arrival in Townsend, and that no directions had been left for the paper. We hope hereafter this will be a lesson to all never to take counsel of their fears.
“Beside, we would rather be drowned a dozen times than occasion so much worry and anxiety again, and that needlessly.”
This 1877 editorial highlights the fragility of local communications in early Washington. Just as the editor was presumed dead simply because his mail-dependent news cycle was interrupted, modern residents often mistake digital silence for catastrophe in an era of hyper-connectivity.
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