Insurance Agent Vanishes After Passing Spurious Checks

Walter B. Stevens, a middle-aged man of respectable appearance, who came to Seattle last March as a traveling agent for the United States Accident Insurance Company, has disappeared, leaving behind many creditors, and is also said to have passed several spurious checks upon business men with whom he had dealings. With few exceptions the persons for whom he wrote life insurance have not received the policies, though they have paid the premiums. When Stevens arrived in the city he hunted up Daniel Shaw and George A. Davis, both of whom knew him in the East. He spent a good deal of his spare time at Mr. Davis' bookstore on Third Street and put up at the Snoqualmie hotel. He always dressed well and, being a good talker, generally made a good impression. On May 9 Mr. Davis cashed a check for $5 on the First National bank for him, and the same evening Mr. Shaw did the same with a check for a like amount. Neither gentleman has seen him since. It was the agent's policy, when a man for whom he had written a policy gave him gold in payment of the premium, to give a worthless check for the change. The police have no clue to his whereabouts, but it is believed he is now in British Columbia.