A Hard Lesson in Friendship
A local clerk is swindled out of $200 by a former employer who promised a return on a worthless bank draft.
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.
S. Pinchower, who is employed at the Blue Front clothing store on Commercial street, swore out a warrant yesterday charging Hugo Eichwold, at one time a merchant at Martinez, Cal., with obtaining money under false pretenses. Pinchower says he was cleverly swindled out of $200 by the ex-merchant. Several years ago Pinchower lived in California and worked for Eichwold. Last Tuesday Eichwold called on Pinchower in Seattle. The visitor claimed that he was traveling for a San Francisco liquor house, and after a night out, claimed he was short of ready money. He induced Pinchower to loan him $200, giving him in return a draft on a California bank. Pinchower presented the draft for payment at the Puget Sound National bank, but yesterday the bank received word from California that the check was worthless and that Eichwold did not have any money on deposit.
“Pinchower says he was cleverly swindled out of $200 by the ex-merchant.”
Trusting a former boss is a timeless mistake, but this story captures the vulnerability of a transient workforce in 1890s Seattle. The reliance on reputation and personal familiarity over formal credit checks was the Achilles' heel of the era's social and commercial life.
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