The Groom Who Never Arrived
A Tacoma feed broker vanishes mysteriously just days before his wedding to a Seattle teacher.
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.
A. R. Lehmann, a hay and feed broker of Tacoma, who was to have been married in Seattle yesterday afternoon, has been missing since last Friday. Lehmann, who had an office in the Maritime building at 726 Pacific Avenue, was last seen Friday afternoon when he took a steamer from Seattle, where he had been visiting his bride-to-be, Miss Martha Christian, a local teacher. Saturday, Miss Christian received a letter from Lehmann in which he mentioned meeting a curious stranger on the steamer, but the note gave no hint of impending danger. Everything was prepared for the wedding at the home of Mrs. Rice on 21st Avenue in Seattle, but Lehmann failed to appear. Police in both cities have been notified, but they have found no trace of the missing man.
“The note, however, gave no hint of impending danger.”
Disappearances were a common and anxiety-inducing trope in early 20th-century newspapers, often reflecting the transience of a city fueled by migration and boom-time expansion. Today, the Maritime Building stands as a historic reminder of that era, while the mystery of the 'missing groom' serves as a reminder of the fragility of social ties in a fast-growing port city.
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