The Seattle Shakedown: A Klondiker’s Lost Fortune
Fresh from the gold fields, a miner’s life savings vanish in an instant at a local hotel, exposing a web of downtown con men.
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.
The mystery surrounding the sudden disappearance of John H. Schwartz, a returned Klondiker, and his gold, which was reported to the police earlier, has been partially solved. It is believed that Schwartz has been made the victim of skilled confidence men of this city, who relieved him of $2,400, and then quietly 'railroaded' him out of town. Schwartz arrived from the North Thursday and took a room at the Globe where he remained until Wednesday. He had 12 ounces of gold dust, which he was in the assay office, receiving a draft on a New York bank. The draft was presented by a man named Emerson, a bartender, for payment at the Puget Sound National bank. The teller refused payment until the assayer had signed the paper. It took the draft to the New York office, going to the National Bank of Commerce, he had it cashed. This morning detectives learned that Emerson had cashed the draft, and he was taken into custody. He was taken to the prosecuting attorney, but that officer refused to issue a complaint, on Emerson's statement that he had received the draft from a partner named Cunningham. As soon as the liberty was obtained, Emerson claimed that he turned it over to a businessman by the name of Ellingson. Several officers believe that he has succeeded in stealing the draft from Schwartz, and Emerson, who is not known to the bank officials, was aided by Eugene Clark, a known real estate man, who introduced Emerson at bank.
“It is believed that Schwartz has been made the victim of skilled confidence men of this city, who relieved him of $2,400, and then quietly 'railroaded' him out of town.”
The 'Klondike gold rush' brought unprecedented wealth and transient laborers to Seattle, turning the city into a playground for confidence men preying on new arrivals. Today, that same central downtown district remains a hub for economic transaction and vulnerability, as current residents grapple with the legacy of displacement and the high cost of urban life in a city defined by its sudden, explosive growth.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.