The Disappearing Blind Musician of Seattle
A itinerant musician duped local merchants before vanishing to California, highlighting the precarity of trust in a growing port city.
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.
There has been perambulating this State for some months past a blind musician named J. M. Wood. Because of his physical misfortune, people gave him a hearty welcome and a liberal support. We have recently learned certain facts concerning him which cause us to believe him a fraud. A short time since he went into the jewelry store of Mr. J. H. Haas, on Commercial Street, and purchased a fine watch and chain amounting to $60. He paid $30 down and informed Mr. Haas that he was going to Portland to give a musical concert and that on his return he would pay the balance. On arriving at Portland, instead of giving a concert, he boarded one of the outgoing steamers and sailed for California. We hear also that he has left a number of other creditors in the lurch, among which are several saloon keepers of this city.
“Because of his physical misfortune, people gave him a hearty welcome and a liberal support. We have recently learned certain facts concerning him which cause us to believe him a fraud.”
This 1877 account of a confidence artist mirrors contemporary concerns about urban trust and the vulnerabilities inherent in Seattle's bustling, transient economy. Just as then, Seattle remains a gateway city where 'out-of-towners' and local merchants navigate shifting landscapes of credit and reputation.
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