A Forged Check Leads to a Hotel-Room Arrest

A woman giving the name of Esmeralda Jane Phelps was arrested at the Stinson Hotel yesterday for having passed a forged check on the clerk at Root's drug store, at the corner of Columbia and Third streets. Tuesday evening she called for 31 cents' worth of drugs and presented in payment a check for $7.50 on the Washington National Bank, signed J. W. Pratt and made payable to "Henry Bolland." The check was not indorsed, and Thompson, the clerk, told her so. She borrowed a pen and ink from him and said she would have it indorsed. She returned in a few minutes with the proper indorsement, and Thompson gave her $7.19 in change. Yesterday morning the check was discovered to be bogus, and the matter was reported to Chief Rogers, who put Detective Phillips on the track of the woman.

Thompson, the clerk, had served the woman on several previous occasions, selling her cocaine and morphine, and suspected she lived within a few doors away. The officer soon located her, and at noon found her still in bed with a man she claimed to be her husband, but who is suspected of being the "Henry" on the check. Both were taken to headquarters and locked up pending further investigation, and Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Wilshire prepared a complaint charging her with passing a forged check and obtaining money under false pretenses. No complaint has yet been filed against the man.

The woman is tall, slender, with dark hair, eyes and complexion. She gives her age as 38 years and is not good looking. Her pale complexion indicates a "fiend" of some kind. The man who claims to be her husband is much younger and gave his age as 28 years.