He Tracked His Runaway Wife to Seattle — and Got Arrested for the Gun in His Pocket
A Walla Walla County farmer drew $200 from the bank, pocketed a revolver, and went hunting for the boarder who ran off with his wife. Seattle police found him first.
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.
Edward O'Brien, a Walla Walla county farmer, is in trouble in Seattle, for the reason that he went to that city several days ago to find his wife, who is supposed to have eloped with another man. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, O'Brien was arrested there on a charge of carrying concealed weapons, and was released from custody by depositing a cash bail of $30.
When searched at police headquarters he had $193.95 in his pocket, and explained that he had so much money with him to pay his expenses until he could find his wife and the man who, he claims, she ran away with. The gun, he says, he had with him for protection in the event that the man who took his wife should show fight to keep her when they might happen to meet.
From the tone of O'Brien's remarks, it may be just as well for the man O'Brien is hunting for that the police have the gun.
According to the story told by O'Brien, who is a quiet, orderly appearing man, he and his wife enjoyed a happy home on their ranch near Walla Walla until a few months ago a man who gave his name as W. J. Esteb, and his address as Portland, came to their house and asked to be accommodated with board for a time, as he was desirous of remaining in the country. He was a well-appearing person, neatly dressed, and the couple decided to take him in. However, O'Brien claims that when the man had been about the house only a few weeks he noticed that his wife was making a good deal of their new boarder, and then he decided to eject him.
O'Brien says that after Esteb left he secretly corresponded with Mrs. O'Brien, but the husband was not aware of it until too late.
Ten days ago Mrs. O'Brien informed her husband that she was going to Spokane on a visit, and he furnished her with money. After she was gone some of the letters from Esteb were found and read by O'Brien, and from their tenor he decided that his wife had gone to join the boarder. He drew $200 out of the bank, and, with the gun in his pocket, started out to do a little detective work. He traced the couple to Seattle, and yesterday afternoon walked up to Patrolman Roesler on the street and inquired if that individual was the chief of police. Roesler answered him, and in the conversation that followed the patrolman noticed a gun sticking out of O'Brien's pocket. Then the patrolman placed him under arrest, called the patrol wagon and sent him to jail. O'Brien put up $30 bail, and with the balance of his money in his pocket started out to continue his search for his wife and Esteb, but without the gun.
“From the tone of O'Brien's remarks, it may be just as well for the man O'Brien is hunting for that the police have the gun.”
A boarded-up stranger, a stack of incriminating letters, and a husband tracing his wife across the state — the 1903 version of a missing-persons search and a very public betrayal. O'Brien's revolver turned him from wronged party into arrestee the moment a patrolman spotted it, the same way a concealed-carry charge can upend a personal crisis today. The story also shows how cheaply a man could be made a spectacle: the paper's sympathy is entirely with him right up to the punchline about the gun.
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