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Lulu White's Elopement Ends in Touraine Hotel Robbery Charge

After eloping from Spokane to Seattle, a young bride was left at a hotel with a cruel note and emptied pockets.

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.

David Stewart, Jr., who is charged with robbing Mrs. Lulu White of $330 in the Touraine hotel last May, the night after their arrival here on an eloping tour from Spokane, left the following heartless message to her: 'Lulu: I have gone to California so don't holler. If you do you will wish you had not. Don't try to follow me. I have left you $50 to go back to papa with, so you had better go. Joe.' The testimony showed that when the woman eloped with Stewart from Spokane she drew $400 out of the bank at his request. Of this amount about $50 was spent on the way to Seattle, leaving $350 when they went to their room in the Touraine, where they registered as man and wife. Stewart was arraigned Friday and held in $1,000 bail.

“Lulu: I have gone to California so don't holler. If you do you will wish you had not.”

— Printed in The Evening Statesman (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903
Then · 1903123 years apartNow · 2026

Elopement scandals were a staple of early 20th-century news, reflecting the era's obsession with 'morality' and women's financial vulnerability. Today, the digital trail would make such a disappearance nearly impossible, but the underlying narrative of financial exploitation in relationships remains a hauntingly familiar pattern.

The original page

The Evening Statesman (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1903-11-09. Library of Congress, Chronicling America.

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About this story

From
The Evening Statesman (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, NOV 9, 1903, Page 8
Rights
Public domain
Place
47.60323, -122.33028 · placed automatically
The paper in the Library of Congress catalog ↗