A Deadly Toast in the Waterfront District
A young woman is found poisoned in a Seattle lodging house after a violent argument with a suitor over her refusal to live with him.
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.
Tuesday evening at about 9 o'clock, Dr. Miller was summoned to Don Blake's house on Washington Street, where he found one of the inmates, a colored girl, writhing in agony and betraying all the symptoms of having been poisoned. The contents of her stomach were removed with a pump, and she soon recovered sufficiently to tell her story. She said she had been roaming around in the evening with a young man who wanted her to live with him, but finally, on reaching her room, she refused, and they had a quarrel. Soon afterwards, he went out and returned with two glasses of whisky. One he drank himself, and the other he handed to her. As soon as she drank the contents of the glass, she noticed it tasted bitter, and told him so, but he assured her it was all right. She soon commenced to suffer from the dose, when he left, locking the door after him. Her cries brought other inmates of the house to her aid, who broke in the door and sent for the doctor. Yesterday, the police officers, under direction of the Chief, instituted a search for the man whom the girl alleged gave her the poison, and last evening Mickey McGrowen, a tall man with a spare face, about 40 years of age, went to the officers and gave himself up, at the same time protesting his innocence. The matter was referred to Prosecuting Attorney Ronald who, in company with McGrowen and Officer Pinckney, visited the girl's room. She identified Mickey as the man who had given her the poisoned whisky, and seemed desirous of appearing against him.
“She said she had been roaming around in the evening with a young man who wanted her to live with him, but finally, on reaching her room, she refused, and they had a quarrel.”
This 1887 incident from Washington Street highlights the extreme vulnerability of women in Seattle's early lodging house districts, a recurring theme of exploitation and violence that echoes through contemporary headlines regarding the city's housing and public safety crises.
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