The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1890-05-23
HE LEFT NO NAME.
A Mysterious Suicide in North
Seattle.
THE USUAL MORPHINE BOTTLE.


An unknown man committed suicide
last night in . room In the l. X. l. iodg-
inghouse, 2.307 Front street. corner Of Eel
street, by taking large dose OF morphine
shortly after going 10 bed. about O'Clock
George Deliei, proprietor Of the l. n L.
iodginghouse and Of the saloon under 1t,
said the man came to him Wednesday
noon and said he used to know him
when he kent q saloon At the
foot of YesIer avenue before
the fire. The stranger gave no name. but
asked if he could get bed for the night.
being answered in the affirmative. He
then paid fifty cents for his room and went
down TO the saloon. where he remained
the most Of the afternoon. He drank q
glass of beer or two. but was not intoxi-
Gated when he came, during the afternoon
or ali day yesterday.
Early in the evening the stranger asked
he bartender for the key to his room and
was referred to Mr. Delfel. who gave him
a key 70 q room in the front OF the lodging
house adjoining the bedroom occupied by
Mr.. and Mrs. Delfei.
Yesterday the stranger spent good part
Of his time in the saloon, sitting on chair
with his head down and acting sufficiently
strange to attract the attention of the bar
tender. At o'clock in the afternoon he
went to Mr.. Delfel and paid him so
cents for . nights lodging. He
was somewhat excited and in reply to the
inquiry where he came from said he had
left Providence hospital the day before,
where he had been for some time to recover
from . broken right leg.
Shortly before o'clock he went to the
bartender and asked for the key to his
room and was again referred to Mr.. Delfel,
who saw him 60 to bed.
At O'Clock. when Mr.. Delfel and wife
retired, they heard loud breathing in the
strangers room, and fearing something
was wrong, got a duplicate key and went
into the room by door opening from Mr..
Delfel's room. He saw that something
was wrong, and ct once notified the bar
tender and Officer c. NJ. Neff.
Officer Neff found the man lying in =
stupor in the bed, and vigorous effort to
awaken him failed. Running quickly to
Barnes drug store at the corner OF Front
and Battery streets, he secured DR.. Sher-
man and Mr.. I. c. Mccartney, the drug
clerk. The three men hurried to the bed
DR.. Williams appeared.
For two and half hours the four men
worked necessarily over the man bat with
out avail. Every available antidote was
tried and artificial respiration resorted to,
but at II 20 the heart ceased to beat and
the man was dead.
When Officer Neff first visited the room
he found lying on a chsir beside the bed a
large jack-knife, with the blade open and
q small quantity of morphine adj
herring on the end. Later an
empty bottle. smelling strongly of
morphine, was discovered near the head of
the bed between the mattress and the bed
covers The label had been scraped off of
the bottle and the cork had been dropped
on the door. There was no longer any
doubt as to the cause of the mans death.
Officer Osborn was sent from police
headquarters to notify Coroner Smart.
who arrived at the lodginghouse at Ii 40
and at once examined the man and, after .
short consultation with DR.. Sherman. said
there was no necessity for holding an in
quest as it was plain the man had COM
mitted suicide by taking dose of NOR
phine.
Coroner Smart then examined the mans
clothing, but could find nothing by which
the man could be identified. On the chair
was found the empty two-ounce bottle of
morphine, from which wide, dark red la
bel had been scraped, to prevent any adj
dress being obtained. The knife was
beside the bottle. and was a white
horn handled, two-bladed one. There
was also bottle of liniment,
bearing q label stamped Bronson Bros,
druggists, Whatcom." A smaller phial,
kaufman Brothers label. None OF these
labels were of the same shape or color as
that scraped off the morphine bottle.
The coroner then went to Cross & Co. 5
undertaking rooms and ordered the body
removed there to be prepared for burial.
The apparel of the dead stranger con-
sisted of white and gray suit of clothes,
light drab workingman's shirt with silk
worked front, red drawers. white wooden
socks, black and white checked silk neck.
tie and q white straw hat with black band
His shoes were heavy laced ones, such as
are worn by workingmen, and were
almost new.
Coroner Smart found q channels pouch
containing three silver dollars and a red.
spo,tea handkerchief in the pon,aloons.
The cork OF the morphine bottle was in the
inylde pocket ii the coat, pages IS to Il; of
ybombey & Son. box of ointment. q
fipe, package of tobacco aud a lead pencil in
the outer pockets. In the vest were q few
matches and watch fob. In the watch
poke, of the trousers the reporter found
five logger's corks or spikes used to fasten
in the soies OF shoes.
The stranger was evidently Swede.
aged about IS years. OF medium height and
rather stout. His hair was brown and his
forehead was bald. His mustache was light
brown and his chin showed about three
DAYS growth of whiskers. There were no
scars on the mans face or arms and no
India ink designs that might lead 10 iden-
titication.
From the mans appearance and his
effects it would appear that the man had
been logger, probably from whatcom.
who had been suffering for some time from
an incurable disease and had made up mis-
mind to end his miserable existence by
taking morphine, which he did.
The place in which the suicide was COM
misied is directly across the street from
the Opera saloon and lodginghouse. in
which Ira Hnmmell committed sui
eide about two months ago. Hummell
after he had taken the fatal dose also hid
the bottle under the bed clothes aud left
his knife out. but unlike this case Hum
mel was not found until be had been dead
several hours
The Two paliiver.