The Wage Suit That Ended With Altered Receipts and a Vanished Proprietor
A Paris restaurant worker sues for unpaid wages; the defense produces receipts that the plaintiffs say were doctored, and the proprietor slips away to California.
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.
In the trial of a suit brought by C. F. Shafer to recover wages due from F. X. Gougeon and wife, formerly proprietors of the Paris restaurant, in Justice Von Tobel’s court yesterday, the startling discovery was made that certain receipts introduced as evidence by the defense had been altered and that Gougeon had left for California the previous night. The amount claimed by Shafer was $25 for services rendered and the amount of $19 on a similar claim which had been transferred to him by Sophia Peterson. The trial was uninteresting until the defense introduced the receipts, to show that both Shafer and Sophia Peterson had been paid in full. H. J. Humphries, who represented the plaintiff, objected, but the court admitted the receipts and then the surprise came. F. Shafer was shown the paper and said: “I signed the paper, but it has been altered. It now reads ‘all acct.’ I signed ‘paid acct.’”
Sophia Peterson looked at the receipt she had signed and exclaimed indignantly: “It has been changed. I told him he was a cheat, and I would not sign a paper without knowing what was in it. The word has been changed to ‘all.’”
The receipts were handed to the attorney for the defendants, W. D. Lambuth. Examination showed them to have been altered, and he admitted that such was the case. It was evidently a surprise to him as well as to the court. Justice Von Tobel gave judgment for the plaintiff in the sum of $47 and costs.
The report that Gougeon had left for California was verified by a visit to the restaurant. On the door was the sign: “For a cook or for rent or sale. Come in the side door.” The side door was locked, and although a reporter rapped loud and long, no one answered. The neighbors had not seen Gougeon since Monday.
“I signed the paper, but it has been altered. It now reads ‘all acct.’ I signed ‘paid acct.’”
Wage theft, doctored records and an employer who disappears are not modern inventions. This 1892 case shows a restaurant worker and a co-worker trying to prove unpaid wages in court while the proprietor fled. The details—receipts, a locked side door, a creditor left holding the bag—could be lifted from a contemporary labor complaint.
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