The Wild Goose Chase of 1887
Two con artists fleeced immigrant laborers in Seattle by selling them jobs on farms that did not exist.
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.
Last Saturday night a policeman in Portland arrested Carl Anderson and another man, an Austrian who had been swindling the Seattle immigrants. The two men were operating a fraudulent employment agency, offering work to laborers on farms that did not exist. They had been extensively engaged in playing their game, which targeted new arrivals, principally Scandinavians and Bohemians. These imaginary farms were said to be located in various sections of Washington Territory, while the men did not own or represent anybody who did own a foot of land anywhere. They would promise their victims $30 per month each, and then collect what money they could from them and send them off on a 'wild goose chase.' These men are reported as having been known to the land office there, and it is hoped they will be called upon to serve a long sentence for their brilliant scheme.
“They would promise their victims $30 per month each, and then collect what money they could from them and send them off on a 'wild goose chase.'”
This 1887 scam mirrors modern digital and predatory labor trafficking, where vulnerable newcomers are still frequently exploited via fake job postings and phantom opportunities. Seattle’s struggle to protect its workforce from deceptive brokers remains a persistent, century-old theme in our civic life.
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