The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1889-03-12
The Facts i'm the Case as Gath.
cred From Various Sources
OF Information.

Miss Matte Hoffman whose myster-
Gus disappearance from St, Louis last
Saturday ahd her appearance in Sc
dalia in company with j. Leonard
johnson, a OfOI n IIEC I'H. ~ ~ L
general office, has returned 10 81
Louis and is safe and sound, hut the
tongue IF the world continues to wag
Gust the same ike ever"
The story Of her disappearance
from St. Louis, is substantially IS
follows related, by the Post Dispatch
and verified by personal interviews
with J. Leonard Johnson:
Miss Matte Hoffman, the pretty
night telegraph operator at the Plant
ers House, was reported mysteriousIy
missing this morning by her father.
who asked police assistance to find
her. Last Saturday at noon was he
last time she was seen at her home.
No. 1921 Lemp avenue. At that
hour she left as usual to 60 II her
WORK at the Planters House. Ia tie
evening a note wa received from her.
l. was brought 10 her home 10y a
messenger boy from the Office. No. l12
North Sixth street. Uniformed her
parents she would net be at home thai
evening but would spend the night
with Joe Driscoll, lady friend llv-
ing near the Fair Grounds. The boy
brought down to the parents IS from
Matte. 1t was her pay she sent
them. Afterwards a note written b.
her was found In her room. In IL
she endeavors to be very pathetic and
sentimental, as girls of her age usual
" are. She speaks Of having been
"wronged." The note reads IS fol-
lows:
''In sorrow. Goodbye to the loved
ones, good.hye to all, Tor never you
shall see me again. | am dead to the
world, to every one, 80 DONE worry
about me- Some day You will see
who wronged me, tor there never is /
thing kept concealed that can be re-
stored So in case | am not dead will
let you hear from me before judgment
,lav Remember [ never went with
any one, but alone. | felt despOnd-
ent, so don't blame me for so doing.
| might be sorry, but | doubt it.
Farewell my loved ones. Yours till
death. MATTE.
Miss Drisc0ll was seen, but said thai
she had not seen or heard from Mat
tie. The clerks and those she knew
at the Planters House knew nothing
of her beyond the slight acquaintance
they had with her at the house. A /
genilen an named Johnson had been
very attentive to her. She was very
young, they said, but they could not |
explaind her absence in any way.
Mrs. Hoffman, the mother OF tie
girl, was seen at the family residence /
She was weeping copiuusly aud be- I
lieved her daughter bad eloped with .
a young man. She thought the
young 'ady Lad acted queerly yester- /
day, and after she VAS gone forced .
the drawer Of her bureau where she
found a letter bidding The family F..
good bye. Mr.. Hoffman then inform
ed the police and the search was IL
stituted. Her mother also described .
a man named Johnson, who was 4 +
railroad employe, who was q friend Of
Matte He represented himself at
very rich. but after getting board as
the Holman mouse, he left owing $50
for board The police put In most oI
the day searching for the giIl and
the theories were equally divided be-
tween suici and elopement. The
man mentioned as johnson was j.
Leonard Johnson, paymaster of the
NJ, +. d /. at Sedalia. who was AZ
ways very attentive to the girl at the
hotel and was said everywhere TO be
her sweetheart.
On yesterday afternoon a st. Louis
evening paper telegraphed to the
BAzoo asking for information on the
subject, An hours investigation re-
vealed several things. One was that
Matte Hoffman had been in Sc lalia
and had been with johnson that
she was pretty girl; that johnson
did not work at the office yesterday {
on account of alleged sickness that
the girl had gone back TO St. Louis
that Johnson had represented himself
as assistant paymaster of the NJ, X. u
T.; that few days previously he had
advertised in the BAzoo for a lady
typewriter, pretty and accomplished
that he caught Matte Hoffman on ,