The Spanking That Became a Fugitive Hunt

SEATTLE, June 19, 1894. To the Editor: The sensational items sent out to papers from Olympia do me great injustice, and I cannot refrain from calling public attention thereto. The man Langton failed to get a warrant until I had demanded that a complaint be lodged and a judicial investigation had. I demanded an immediate hearing, which the prosecuting attorney would not consent to on account of other engagements. He and Justice Rathbun then arranged for a hearing next Tuesday. I told them I had previous business engagements at Port Townsend, and would go there and return, arriving home Friday. I requested that he have all papers ready by that time, and assured him I would immediately make necessary appearance and recognizance on my return. I left on this morning's steamer, and as soon as my back was turned another warrant was sworn out before a different justice, and upon my arrival in Seattle I am confronted with a telegram to the chief of police to detain me, and Sheriff Prince arrives later, commanded to take me back to Olympia forthwith. No bond authorized, no alternative is presented but to subject myself to inconvenience, annoyance and loss of time, money and business. Any one outside of a lunatic asylum knows that a man in his right mind would never run away from a charge of assault and battery. The proceedings on their face bear the unmistakable stamp of malice and vindictive spite. An attempt is being made to manufacture a sensation, and I am hounded like a fugitive criminal. The case is one in which a child in my custody was punished by me in my usual method of punishing my own children — by spanking it on the buttock with my open hand. When my attention was called by Langton to the discolored condition of the child's skin next day I immediately told him it must have resulted from the spanking; that I had not had the slightest idea of injuring the child, and would have been just as liable to have hurt one of my own boys in the same way, having often spanked them just as I was spanked myself when I was little. I told him I was exceedingly sorry, but that I had evidently punished the child more severely than I realized at the time. I at once called on a physician and took him to examine and prescribe for the little one, and to do everything possible for its comfort. The injury has been greatly exaggerated, and street corner gossip has all tended in this direction. Rivalry among physicians has tended also to magnify the matter. Spite workers, actuated by various motives, have also egged on a vindictive man who openly boasted his purpose to have revenge. The whole matter is reaching a point where animus is shown beyond all reason or justice. If any misdemeanor has been committed — even unwittingly — the fact should be determined by the proper officers of the law, not by or through newspapers or street gossip. Very truly, ALLEN WEIR.