A Horse-Thieving Liveryman’s Great Escape
After mortgaging his entire business and selling off his neighbor's property, a British Columbia liveryman makes a desperate flight across the border into Washington.
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.
A. E. Clarke has emigrated to Washington state with a bundle of boodle. He was in the livery stable and hack business in New Westminster, B.C., and did a large business, but recently the profits were not sufficient to suit him. He got credit everywhere, and when people began to dun him, he mortgaged every whip, strap, horse, and vehicle in his possession. Then he sold several of the mortgaged horses, next the good will of his business for $1,000, and wound up by hitching a fine team to a $1,000 gurney, also mortgaged, and drove away to Whatcom, where it is said he sold the outfit for a handsome amount. Clarke's creditors and the people who had mortgages on his property are wild with despair.
“Clarke's creditors and the people who had mortgages on his property are wild with despair.”
While this 1892 account of a 'boodler' fleeing his debts across the border feels like a frontier relic, the cross-border tension and local frustration with unaccountable business owners remain a familiar rhythm in the Pacific Northwest’s evolving landscape.
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