Inside Job Suspected at Mount Vernon Depot
The Great Northern depot in Mount Vernon was robbed of $40 in cash, suggesting the thief had intimate knowledge of the office.
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.
Mount Vernon, Feb. 6—The Great Northern depot was robbed today at noon, about $40 being taken from the cash drawer. Agent Ferryman locked up the depot a few minutes after the arrival of the noon train from Seattle and went over to the post office with the mail sacks. When he got back the money drawer had been rifled. The depot was locked and the drawer opened with the combination. Considerable excitement is rife because someone well acquainted with the affairs of the office must have stolen the money. Agent Pratt, whose place Ferryman took, was robbed several months ago.
“Considerable excitement is rife because someone well acquainted with the affairs of the office must have stolen the money.”
This incident highlights the vulnerability of regional rail hubs that functioned as the primary economic arteries of towns like Mount Vernon in the 1890s. The suspicion of an 'inside job' remains a common trope in local crime reporting, reflecting the close-knit, surveillance-heavy nature of small-town life.
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