The Runaway Broker: Tacoma Man Found in Sacramento
Alvin R. Lehmann, a Tacoma broker who vanished on his wedding day, resurfaces in California with a desperate request for money.
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.
Alvin R. Lehmann, the Tacoma broker whose sudden disappearance from this city a week ago on the eve of the day set for his marriage to Miss Martha Christian of Seattle suggested foul play, has been located in Sacramento, Cal., through a letter sent to Dr. B. J. Moody, a manufacturer of medicated stockfoods in Seattle, for whom Lehmann once worked. Since Lehmann failed to keep his appointment to marry Miss Christian, the police of Tacoma and Seattle have been trying to gain some clue to his whereabouts. In the letter to Dr. Moody, Lehmann says: 'It may be that you have heard of my sudden disappearance from Tacoma. I have just been able to write my friends there explaining, and if I ever get back to the Northwest, I'll call and see you. As it is, however, I'm here, broke. I would give my life if I could be in Seattle for five minutes. I write now hoping you may be able to send me the money which you expected to have for me early this week.' Dr. Moody says that he saw Lehmann the day before he left and that the broker was in straitened circumstances and had pawned his watch and ring.
“As it is, however, I'm here, broke. I would give my life if I could be in Seattle for five minutes.”
Public anxiety over 'mysterious disappearances' often masks the mundane reality of financial failure. Lehmann's story serves as a reminder of how social reputations were destroyed in the early 20th century by the intersection of sudden debt and failed marriage contracts.
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