The Unmasking of a Snohomish Thief
After vanishing from a logging camp with a comrade's savings, a thief is tracked to Port Townsend and branded a criminal.
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.
The man Lennox who disappeared so mysteriously from the logging camp of J. A. Roan some weeks ago, has been heard from. He was last seen at Port Townsend where he pawned the revolver he had stolen and left per steamer for San Francisco. It is now positively known that he stole the $30 from the pockets of the men, which raises the veil of suspicion which may have hung over the head of some innocent party. Whether Lennox is insane or not, we will not pronounce, but we can recommend him to the people of California as being a thief.
“Whether Lennox is insane or not, we will not pronounce, but we can recommend him to the people of California as being a thief.”
Accusations of theft and flight remain a timeless source of small-town anxiety. While the $30 stolen in 1876 would be worth roughly $850 today, the social toll of being suspected of a crime alongside one's peers in a tight-knit labor community remains a familiar, bitter reality in rural Snohomish County.
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