The Effigy in the Pine Tree

MICA, Wash., Aug. 3. — (Special.) — The friends of Charles F. Gloystein, the farmer who disappeared from this place last Sunday night, believe that he fell a victim to a secret political organization known as the Freeman's Protective Silver Federation, an offshoot of the People's Party. The authorities are thoroughly convinced that the farmer was murdered, and, if he was killed, the circumstances leading up to the bloody deed indicate that he was removed because of his zealous Republicanism and persistent warfare on Populist theories.

The affair has caused much excitement both in this vicinity, which is notorious as a Populist hotbed, and at Spokane. Gloystein has now been missing for five days, and, although a sheriff's posse, aided by thirty-two or forty farmers of this place, has maintained a systematic search of the woods within a radius of ten miles, his body has not been found. Evidences of murder are numerous, however: his bloody hat, with the crown crushed in, and a place in the road where the fallen leaves are covered with dried blood have been discovered, but here the clue is lost and the affair presents an aspect of impenetrable mystery.

Who could have committed the murder? What was the motive for the crime? These questions can have but one answer. Gloystein had no enemies except political ones; he was hung in effigy by members of the Silver Federation; he received threatening letters from Populists; he was made the victim of Ku-Klux methods of political warfare, and, just as he was about to prosecute his enemies for the effigy outrage, he disappeared from the face of the earth as completely as if a current of air had transported him to the moon.

The events leading up to Gloystein's disappearance convinced sober-minded people that the anarchistic tendency of the secret Populist organization had a direct connection with the tragedy. Gloystein openly opposed the party and its offshoot, the Silver Federation; he boasted of his Republican principles; he crowed over the Populist defeat when Oregon went Republican, and for this was hung in effigy and threatened with death. As soon as he tried to discover the identity of the perpetrators of the effigy outrage he began receiving threatening letters. He finally became convinced that A. C. Rubeck, a farmer living two and a half miles from Mica, was the leader of the men who planned the effigy outrage, and he engaged in an acrimonious newspaper discussion with him. Gloystein's public letter to Rubeck was printed in the Rockford Enterprise last Saturday. The following night he disappeared, and it is firmly believed he was murdered.

The trouble between Gloystein and his Populist neighbors dates back to the time Gen. Jeffries and Gen. Jumbo Cantwell arrived from the Sound with the Industrial Armies. At that time Rubeck became prominent in a movement to organize a home guard to aid the 'boys' in their march upon Washington City. Rubeck was chosen captain of the guard because of his knowledge of military tactics, having up to thirteen years earlier been a soldier in the regular army, stationed at Fort Sherman. No sooner had the guard been organized than an individual calling himself 'Capt.' Evans arrived at Mica and represented that he was a traveling Populist missionary organizing the Freeman's Protective Silver Federation. He came from Whitman County and said he had been employed at the Pullman Agricultural College as drillmaster for the cadets. At Mica he was received with open arms and in a few days succeeded in reorganizing the home guard and local Farmers' Alliance into the Farmers' Protective Silver Federation. He advised the farmers to buy Winchesters with which to protect themselves from plutocrats, and then began drilling them in the manual of arms. Rubeck was elected captain of the federation, and a good deal of suppressed excitement followed.

Nearly every farmer there was a Populist, and the federation became a strong local organization. Gloystein was a member of the Farmers' Alliance, but when it merged into the federation he withdrew, explaining that he did not believe in secret political organizations. When asked to sign the membership roll he replied: 'No, I think I'll chew Republican silver a while longer.'

That remark was accepted as a challenge. When some neighbors began to use violent language, Gloystein declared that the federation was an anarchist organization, that it taught violence, and that every member was bound by oath never to vote either the Republican or Democratic tickets. Gloystein made a bitter fight on the federation and succeeded in having the school directors decline the further use of the schoolhouse as a federation lodge room. This enraged the Populists, and Gloystein was roundly denounced. Feeling against him grew very strong until the Oregon election, when he was threatened with violence.

The news that Oregon had gone Republican by 15,000 caused dismay among the Mica Populists, but Gloystein's joy knew no bounds. Before the election the Populists were confident and did a great deal of talking; afterward they never opened their mouths. Gloystein, elated at the discomfiture of his erstwhile sanguine neighbors, painted a sign and stuck it up in his field where the Spokane-Rockford wagon road crosses California Creek. People who read the sign were moved to anger. Gloystein frankly acknowledged authorship and crowed over his neighbors until he was again threatened with violence.

One morning the community was thrown into excitement by the discovery of an effigy hanging from a pine tree in front of the schoolhouse. On the back of the figure was a placard. The effigy consisted of a jumper and a pair of overalls stuffed with straw. The head was a bundle covered by an old hat, to which was fastened a pair of bull's horns. On the feet were brogans. The figure was suspended by a wire from a limb thirty feet above the ground. The tree trunk was covered with signs, some too obscene for publication. Among them were: 'Come and see me in hell'; 'The Lord said, Depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity; I know ye not'; 'I'm a Republican because I love booze — Charles F. Gloystein'; 'Notice. This is the shadow cast by the board at California Creek'; 'All Populists pay for this lost Republican'; and 'Death to traitors!' The last placard bore a heart painted blue, pierced by a dagger from which blood dripped freely. Other signs showed skull and crossbones, dangling wretches, crows, vultures and dollar marks.

The effigy was first discovered by children going to school. When Gloystein's oldest boy, not quite 7, reached the school, older boys pointed to the figure swaying in the breeze and said: 'That is your papa hanging there.' The little boy ran home terror-stricken but was rejoiced to find his father working in the field. Gloystein examined the effigy and, from the drawings and the general outline of the letters, concluded that Rubeck had made it. Rubeck later admitted he was a party to the outrage. At first he denied knowing anything about it, but Gloystein induced Wesley Rinear, a mutual friend, to demand that the effigy be taken down. Rubeck made the ambiguous reply: 'I won't take down that thing; but I want them overalls back.'

Gloystein waited three days, then cut down the effigy and took possession of the signs, intending to bring the matter before the grand jury at Spokane.

A Spokane paper published a story of the effigy episode connecting Rubeck's name with the deed. Rubeck responded with a two-column letter of bitter personal abuse, printed in the Rockford Enterprise. He defended the effigy outrage while denying personal involvement, though admitting it was done by Populists. He argued that Gloystein's sign at California Creek had been a challenge to the People's Party and claimed Gloystein wanted a row. 'As a peace-loving citizen I will continue advocating peace,' Rubeck wrote, 'but the time is fast approaching when peace will be a mockery and war must come, if the ultimate result of this infamous legislation that has been grinding the country down for the past thirty years.'

The publication caused much excitement at Mica and Rockford and even at Spokane, where Populists used violent language about the audacious Republican farmer. Gloystein would not be subdued. On July 21 he received this note: 'Gloystein: If you don't let this matter drop, we will make it hot for you.' The note worried him, but he remained firm. In the next issue of the Enterprise a letter appeared over his signature accusing Rubeck of hanging him in effigy. Gloystein closed by warning Rubeck that the case would be taken up, and that he was ready to prove Rubeck 'as big a peace disturber as a boa is permitted to live outside of Walla Walla.'

Gloystein's reply was printed last Saturday. The following night he was enticed from his home and has not since been seen. Mrs. Gloystein was seen at her home here today, and she recalls the circumstances preceding his disappearance.