Vigilante Justice in Cle Elum

The citizens of Cle Elum have adopted a cheap, speedy and moderately effective method of dealing with obstreperous hobos, dozens of whom pass through here daily and commit more or less depredation. Last Saturday morning, Brakeman Charles Secour, of No. 87 freight, missed two overcoats and a sack coat from the caboose. He spotted a hobo hanging around the train just before it started, and his train had gone but a few miles on its way west when the garments were missed. The train was stopped and Secour started back toward Cle Elum. He soon met the hobo, westward bound, carrying a gunny sack. Secour held him up with his revolver and opened the sack, and his coats fell out. The tramp was brought back to Cle Elum and given the alternative of going to jail or receiving all the lashes that his captor could administer on a quarter-mile dash, the tramp to take six feet the start. The latter proposition was accepted, and Secour procured a blacksnake whip. The start was made, and in covering the distance the whip was laid on head, back, shoulders and legs with great vigor, every crack of the whip bringing out a yell. Since, two hobos have been similarly treated and were severely punished.