The Dice Game Heist
Two con-men swindle a logger out of his savings using a loaded dice game in a downtown Seattle saloon.
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.
Charles Chapman and George Bell were held for the superior court by Justice Von Tobel on a charge of larceny after swindling a German logger named Fills Plova. The men operated a dice game on a saloon bar and, through a sleight-of-hand trick, snatched Plova's money and certificate of deposit before fleeing. They were apprehended after a witness, Frank Kane, alerted authorities. The defense argued it was merely a gambling game, but the justice rejected this, holding the men on larceny charges.
“Chapman pulled out from his pocket a luminous gold coin and some greenbacks and laid it alongside as if for a wager. Then he rolled out the dice and at the same time snatched money and certificate from the bar and ran out the door.”
Saloon scams and confidence games were rampant in early Seattle, serving as a reminder of the city's rough-and-tumble frontier atmosphere where the transient population was constantly targeted for their savings.
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