The Lonely Death of 'Mike the Rooster'
A once-prominent figure in the city's sporting fraternity dies in a lodging house on Washington Street from a morphine collapse.
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.
Michael McLaughlin, commonly known as 'Mike the Rooster,' was found dead on the floor at the side of his bed in a room at the Green Tree lodging house on Washington street yesterday afternoon at 4:30 o'clock, death being due to a general collapse of his system from the use of morphine. Just after the big fire, McLaughlin was well known among the sporting fraternity, being a skillful faro dealer. His effects consisted of a solitary nickel and a box of pills.
“McLaughlin's effects consisted of a solitary nickel and a box of pills.”
The death of a former local celebrity in a lodging house, reduced to nothing but a nickel and a box of pills, is a stark look at the fragility of life and the transience of status in the Pioneer Square area of the late 19th century.
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