The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-05-03
/ BUSINESS WOMAN.
Buys Groceries on Time and
Sells Them for Cash.
SHE AND HER MANAGER SKIP.
Leaving Empty Boxes for Her Creditors
ts Attach-Jhe Manager Forgets
His Pocketbook.

A strange. not to say suspicious. disap-
pearnnce is shat of Mrs. NJ. Smith, who
for the past FIVE months has been running
a grocery store in the Citizens market on
Second street. as well as that of Fred
Smith, her manager, and presumably her
young husband. Those who mourn their
absence do not include fond relatives or
dear friends. And yet their going has
saddened the hearts of several people in
business here and in other cities, who had
been prevailed upon to extend lines OF
credit TO the groceries,.
Yesterday morning when the clerks OF
Webb & Co.'S store opened up that place
OF business they discovered note which
had been showed under the door during
the night. The note was addressed to the
firm, and informed them that if they
wanted to get their pay for goods sold to
Mrs Smith, they had better get out an at
tachment at once. Acting on this advice
the firm did so. they being creditors to the
extent Of $3.50
Before this was served, however, the
clerks OF Mrs. Smiths store, of whom
there were several, had opened up the
store as usual. but after awhile. neither
t.
clerks went over TO the room in the
Brooklyn lodging hotel. where the Smiths
had been stopping, to learn where Mr..
Smith was. The clerk met W. J. Styled.
who runs the hotel, and he told him tina.
Smith had gone away he did not know
where.
Later in the day Mr. Styled appeared
at the store with a telegram he had re-
ceised from Mrs. Smith, reading as fol-
lows:
NEW wHArcoM, Wash. May 2, 1898.
Slrfeld, brooklyn BLock: Go and get my pocK-
etbook under the tobacco counter, over where
the beans are. NJ. SMITH.
The clerk found the pocketbook, which
contained nearly $50, but declined to let
Mr.. Slyfeld have il. 1t fell later into the
hands of the sheriff, who seized the stock
on Webb & Co.'S attachment.
Mrs. Smith has not been seen since
Thursday night, and it is supposed that
she left the city Friday morning. Smith
left Monday night. after telling Mr.. Sly
field that his wife had left and be proposed
to go too He said that the creditors who
had been pressing them hard for several
days would have to get along the best they
could. lie didn't care particularly where
he went; he wanted TO get out of town.
He said that he owed over $11 900 here and
in San Francisco. The last thing he said
before leaving was that Webb & Co. had
q treated him right and he wanted to pro-
tect them. He said he intended to shove
. note under their door before going, tell
ing them to attach the stock at once.
Mrs. Smith is rather stout woman,
about IS or so Years old. with light COM
plexion and business-like in her manners
Mr.. Smith, who lived with her as her hus-
band. although he often spoke of her as
"mother," is a smooth shaver, chunky
young man of Is. having light eyes, a
loud voice and rough ways. They both
spoke with an unmistakable cockney ac-
cent, betraying their London origin They
opened up the store in December last, OBJ
tanning a line of credit by not asking for
any and by discounting their bills.
They did cash business, and put out sew
eral runners to solicit business. By
selling at remarkably low prices they soon
built up large business, requiring three
clerks and two wagons to attend to il.
They gradually got TO buying goods on
time, most of them on thirty days or pay
able on the LIST of the month. 1t is pre-
sumed that in some cases they got longer
have been harrassed by creditors demand
ing their money. They allowed their stock
TO run down very low by selling off as
much as possible, and when the officers
seized it they found the boxes of goods so
displayed as to give the appearance of
being full of goods. whereas they we're
empty beneath the first layer. The value
OF the goods on hand could not, of course
y.a tad
taken. but ii is surmised that il will fall
FAR less than the liabilities John h.
Agen had bill of $3.50 against
them and Smith gave him $50 Monday
night. He told Mr.. Styled that he had
60 80 so to keep him quiet. Besides Webb
4 Co. aud Agen other creditors are Schwa-
bacher Bros. Co, Seattle Soap Company.
Northwest Cracker Company. W. II. An
dcrson. Frank Iobst. Crescent Creamery
Company, Goodman & Co, Wakefield &
Wood and several San Francisco firms,
Mr.. Styled said that Mrs. Smith has
been talking of selling him the furniture
Of her rooms, saying that they could do
better by boarding az a hotel, where thew
could sell groceries and make profit bv
doing 80. Finally. on last Thursday she
came 10 me" said Slyfeld. "and asked
me what could give Tor the OUTFIT. /
made her an offer and she closed the
bargain. That night she said she had run
. nail IN her foot and iimped. Not
seeing her afterwsrd, supposed she
was confined 10 her room by the accident.
and presume she told the same story 10
others. On going she took her trunk and
ali her personal belongings with her. |
think they said they had been in the gro
Gerry business in Boston. and they spoke Of
having been in Denver and Chicago. |
think, though, they came right out here
from the East and that Mrs. Smith has
gone back there again"