The Con Artist of Fairhaven
A smooth-talking accountant gambles away his reputation and his wife's dignity with a string of bad checks and a faked suicide attempt.
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.
About four weeks ago, H. S. Garrish arrived in Fairhaven from Tacoma with his wife. While in Tacoma, he was an accountant for Nelson Bennett. After reaching Fairhaven, he took desk room in the office of W. W. Kay. Despite his potential, he soon succumbed to excessive drinking and gambling. To cover his losses, Garrish began writing bad checks on the Merchants' National Bank of Tacoma and the First National Bank of Fairhaven. After fleecing several locals, his wife interceded to pay back the debts, but Garrish continued his schemes. On Sunday, he lost money at cards and wrote a $60 check to Steve Lull at the Bijou Saloon. To create sympathy, he took morphine and cut his arm, pinning a fake suicide note to his vest. His wife discovered him, and a doctor revived him. After being arrested on Monday, his wife again raised money to release him. He fled to Whatcom, where he swindled more victims before a warrant was issued for his arrest.
“He went home and that night while his wife was in another room, took a small dose of morphine, and rolling up his sleeve he pricked his arm with a knife, and then pinned a card on his vest telling his wife that he had killed himself.”
This story highlights the intense social pressure placed on spouses of 'men of standing' in the 1890s, where a wife's reputation was often the only thing protecting her husband from the law. The dynamic of a transient grifter moving between booming Puget Sound cities like Fairhaven and Tacoma remains a classic archetype of the era's 'boomtown' anxiety.
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