A Heroic Rescue at the Ocean Dock
Former Police Chief Geo. C. Monroe clarifies his role in rewarding a young man who saved a girl from drowning in Seattle harbor.
While waiting here on board the City of Topeka, bound for Juneau, Alaska, I was fortunate enough to get the Seattle papers, each giving an account of the little girl falling into the water from the ocean dock, and the brave manner in which the young man came to the rescue. Your account of the incident is substantially correct. It was a brave, noble, generous act. After the brave young gentleman had brought the little girl safely to the dock and saw her placed in a carriage, I stepped up to him and we shook hands, and I left a $5 bill in his hand, which he refused with a blush, making the remark that he did not wish pay for what he had done. I have been made by another paper to appear as a bully and a brute, forcing a gift on him under penalty of being thrown overboard by me if he would not accept the money. Such a proceeding never happened.
“Take it, young man, not from a full purse, but from a father, and if you ever have to, do the same brave deed again.”
This letter to the editor captures the early days of Seattle's 'sensational' press, where a simple act of heroism was twisted into a scandal. It serves as a reminder that the tension between objective reporting and tabloid-style character assassination is as old as the city itself.
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