The Bellboy and the Purse Trap
A Rainier Hotel manager ends a spree of thefts by setting a sting operation for a dishonest employee.
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 series of thefts which have caused Mr. L. Harbaugh, manager of the Rainier hotel, considerable worriment, was brought to a sudden termination last evening by the clever capture of Nathan Sanguenette, a colored bell boy, while in the act of extracting money from the purse of Mrs. Robert J. Peck. The capture was the result of a nicely laid trap, in which R. J. Lamoreux played the principal part.
“The capture was the result of a nicely laid trap.”
Petty crime and hotel service staff history are rarely recorded with dignity in 19th-century papers; the 'trap' language reflects the era's focus on individual culpability rather than systemic conditions, a common trope in local crime reporting of the 1890s.
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