A Cabin Sold for $10, Then a Body at the Foot of Union Street
Frank Mails was last seen leaving a Railroad Avenue saloon; the coroner ruled his death accidental, but the details of his last night left quiet questions.
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.
The body of Frank Mails, an engineer, aged about 45 years, was found in the bay at the foot of Union street yesterday morning. He was last seen alive Wednesday night at 10 o'clock by Charles Hempel, when he left the Zerhn saloon on Railroad avenue in an intoxicated condition. He staggered north along the railroad track toward his home and, it is thought, stumbled into the bay. There were no marks of violence and Coroner Horton decided an inquest was unnecessary. Mails had sold his cabin for $10, and that accounted for his having the money on which to become intoxicated. During the evening he got into a quarrel with 'Swede Hill' over a glass of beer and was whipped. Coroner Horton had an investigation at his office yesterday afternoon before declaring death accidental. Mails was about 45 years old and a native of Boston. He had a placer mining claim at Smith's Cove. His sister, Dora Crandall, lives at Los Angeles and is said to be well to do. Some think Mails had another name.
“Mails had sold his cabin for $10, and that accounted for his having the money on which to become intoxicated.”
Frank Mails's death was ruled accidental, but it carries the weight of a city where men with a little cash, a saloon habit and no safe bed could vanish into the waterfront. Seattle still counts deaths in Elliott Bay and still argues over addiction, shelter and who is responsible for people on the edge. The $10 cabin sale is the kind of detail that turns a routine drowning into a life.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.