A Tragic End in the Louvre Saloon
A lonely newcomer finds a desperate end in Tacoma, leaving behind only letters from a sister and a failed promise of sobriety.
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.
About 12:30 o'clock Tuesday morning a man named Albert Jameson, a recent arrival from Red Wing, Minnesota, committed suicide by blowing his brains out with a revolver in the Louvre saloon. Doctors McCutcheon, McCoy and Gove were at once summoned, but their medical aid was of no avail. Jameson's wounds were found to be fatal. The suicide passed away slowly and died about 2 o'clock. Upon the deceased's person were found letters from his sister at Red Wing, Minnesota, expressing the hope that he was abstaining from whiskey. There was no money on Jameson's person, and it is supposed that since his arrival in Tacoma he has been on a prolonged spree.
“Upon the deceased's person were found letters from his sister at Red Wing, Minnesota, expressing the hope that he was abstaining from whiskey.”
This brief, tragic report from 1889 reflects the harsh reality for many transient workers arriving in the Pacific Northwest during the rapid expansion of the late 19th century. Jameson's story, echoing today's struggles with housing instability and the opioid crisis, serves as a sobering reminder that behind the city-building progress of the era lay immense human isolation and despair.
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