The Scandal That Shook Endicott

Endicott, Wash. — This usually quiet little town is all torn up over what is believed to be an elopement of two well-known people, both married. John F. Davidson, who has been agent for the Kerr-Gifford Grain company here this year, and Mrs. Mountz, wife of Edward Mountz, a local harness maker, are missing and have been gone several days. Their departure followed a sensational scene in the warehouse of which Davidson was manager and in which Mrs. Mountz had been employed as bookkeeper, when the woman's husband threatened to shoot both his wife and Davidson, but was prevented from doing so. Davidson leaves a wife and two children and Mrs. Mountz a husband and two children in Endicott. Abe Young has been appointed to succeed Davidson as manager of the warehouse. Davidson's accounts are said to be straight. The affair is the culmination of an intimacy which had caused some talk here, and when Mrs. Mountz was employed by Davidson as bookkeeper, gossip became public and reached the ears of Mountz. Mountz walked into the warehouse one evening recently and the row followed. It is not known what Mountz saw that aroused his ire, but Mrs. Mountz left the next morning and Davidson went to Colfax, where he told the general agent he was resigning. He returned to Endicott to check over the accounts, but carried a loaded revolver, as he expressed fear that Mountz would try to kill him. Davidson later disappeared and sent his wife $400 and bills of sale for their personal property, telling her he would not return. Mrs. Davidson has returned to Endicott heartbroken; she is a woman of refinement and highly respected, and public sympathy is with her.