The Swindler with the Golden Brick
A local confidence man allegedly fleeced hotels and saloons by leaving behind fake gold bricks as temporary collateral.
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.
M. T. Ward, who was arrested by Officer Philbrick on Wednesday, is charged with having worked a gold brick swindle for the last three months, cheating several hotels, restaurants and saloons. He reportedly carried a brick and a half of spurious metal made to resemble gold. The metal weighs the same as gold and acid has no effect on it. His game was to deposit these at a business, representing that the metal was taken from a mine he owned, while he ran up a bill. When it came time to settle, he would leave the brick behind as security and slip away, never to return. Ward also allegedly swindled a man named Tommy Miles out of $65 using a fake bank check scheme. While he was arrested for the check incident, officials are struggling to build a case for the gold brick swindle as many victims are embarrassed to come forward.
“The whole brick is supposed to be worth $4,000, so his creditor has no reason to think there is any danger of his not returning to pay the trifle due.”
Long before digital banking scams or crypto-frauds dominated the headlines, local grifters were using 'gold' bars and bogus mining claims to exploit the booming trust-based economy of 1890s Seattle. The reluctance of victims to testify due to social shame remains a recurring theme in white-collar and confidence crime reporting.
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