The Ghost House of Monte Cristo
A widow with two children was lured to the mining camp with the promise of a house that didn't exist.
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.
A communication from Monte Cristo gives particulars of what appears to be a case of obtaining money under false pretenses by J.W. Jones, who claims to represent 'the Monte Cristo Company.' The victim is a widow named Priestley, who has two young children. According to her story, on her arrival at Monte Cristo, Jones told her he was building a 16-room house and rented it to her at $10 a month, receiving one month's rent in advance. She arrived in Monte Cristo and found nothing on the lot described but four sticks of lumber. As soon as the officials of the several mining companies learned her predicament, they found a place for her and the children to sleep. Mrs. Priestley was urged to go to the city and prosecute Jones, but she was unwilling to go to the expense of the trip.
“She arrived at Monte Cristo, and found nothing on the lot described but four sticks of lumber.”
This scam, set in the boomtown era of Monte Cristo, mirrors contemporary stories of housing fraud and rental scams in a city desperate for affordable space. It shows that 'land of opportunity' narratives have always had a predatory underside.
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