A Captain Tries Twice to Die—and Walks Home
Capt. Alfred Garton took morphine, then a bullet, in an Occidental Hotel room. Both failed, and his letter blamed a fortune in real estate that no one would buy.
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If there was ever a man who made attempts to end his life and yet failed, that person is Captain Alfred Garton. In a calm and deliberate manner he wrote two letters, one to his wife and one to his attorney, Frank P. Lewis, acquainting them with the true state of affairs and giving his reasons for killing himself. Then he borrowed his double-barreled 42-caliber short derringer, saying that he was to take a trip to Tacoma, got a box of morphine pills, and went to the Occidental Hotel. He was assigned to suite No. 27 and tried to kill himself in the second room of the suite, which has no number.
First he tried the morphine. This did not work, and so Friday night or early Saturday morning he shot himself. The bullet was a 42 shot and consequently did not have sufficient driving power to do its deadly work after having been deflected. It is believed that he lay insensible for about two hours, and on reviving tried to shoot again. Fortunately the gun missed fire and the captain, giving up the job in disgust, walked home. He will recover, but at present has considerable trouble in breathing.
A Post-Intelligencer reporter yesterday asked Mr. Lewis about the contents of the letter he received from Mr. Garton. Mr. Lewis first objected to saying anything, but finally gave the pith of the letter. It said in substance that he was in financial trouble, had tried to get work and failed; consequently he had decided to die. He left his property to his family.
Mr. Garton is like a good many other people. He has plenty of real estate, but there is no market for it.
“He has plenty of real estate, but there is no market for it.”
Garton's despair was rooted in an illiquid real-estate market: he owned property but could not convert it into cash or work. Seattle's modern housing crisis still ties personal stability to a market where assets can be plentiful on paper and useless in a crisis.
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