The Forged Warrants, and the Ticket to Liverpool
A Tacoma city clerk's alleged forgery ring comes apart in court as a detective reveals escape passages booked to Halifax and a forged signature on the city's own money.
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.
TACOMA, May 31. — [Special.] — City Treasurer George W. Boggs testified in the McCain city-warrant forgery trial that the warrant in evidence was a forgery, so far as his name on it was concerned. City Detective Smith gave the state what it considered very valuable testimony in stating that McCain had told him that he (McCain) had 'made' the forged warrant and had given it to his brother John to pass. Smith also testified that he found railroad tickets on McCain for Halifax, N.S., and steamboat tickets from Halifax to Liverpool. The latter he was sure were made out in the names of Jones and James, showing that they were bought by the McCains under assumed names. James T. Belcher, who interviewed McCain, also testified that he stated that he was responsible, referring to the forgeries, and that his brother John had nothing to do with it. The prosecution seems satisfied to prove that McCain was responsible for the forgeries, while the defense seems desirous of proving that others were interested. The alleged forged warrants were signed for the city treasurer, George W. Boggs, per 'E.' R. — the deputy — and the deputy thought the signature for Boggs was a forgery, but he, like nearly all the rest who are called to testify, was not sure. Mrs. McCain, wife of the ex-assistant city clerk, is in court daily, sometimes accompanied by a 7-year-old boy. She does not seem to lack courage.
“Smith also testified that he found railroad tickets on McCain for Halifax, N.S., and steamboat tickets from Halifax to Liverpool.”
A city employee accused of forging municipal paper and quietly booking passage abroad — the details are a century old, but the shape of the story is familiar to anyone who follows public-corruption cases today. The image of a wife sitting in the gallery with her young son is the human cost the ledger never records.
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