The Hanged Corporal: A Seattle Guard Company Investigates Its Own Effigy Prank
Officers admitted the facts but called it a practical joke—then promised to punish the men who strung up Corporal J. E. Boyer in effigy.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The publication of the hanging in effigy of Corporal J. E. Boyer, of Company N.G.W., caused much talk in military circles yesterday, and last evening Capt. L. B. Parsons and Lieut. Donald G. Olson, of the same company, called at the Press-Intelligencer office and asked to have it corrected in some particulars. They admitted that in the main it was correct. They made the following statement:
'When Mr. Boyer joined the company he was given a very warm reception—and a cool one, as the article stated. Blanketing is a popular [joke] in the guard; the most popular men are blanketed, and it is the initiation of [new] recruits. No officers [laughed]. Captain Parsons and Lieutenant Olson were present at the drill Wednesday evening, and they certainly did not laugh at the men marching out of time. Capt. Parsons would not have countenanced such a thing.
'The dummy could not have been there last Wednesday evening, for Capt. Parsons was the last man to leave the company room and it was not there then. Lieut. Olson saw the effigy there Thursday afternoon with a notice posted on it reminding Mr. Boyer not to leave his uniform out of the locker again, for it was strictly against the rules to do so.
'The whole affair is regarded as a practical joke, but the hanging of the effigy is being investigated and the guilty parties will be punished. The company as a whole is composed of well-disciplined men, as was demonstrated on the recent trip to Spokane, but this trick was played by two or three men who [were disappointed] at not being promoted in place of Boyer. The whole company should not be blamed for the act of a few.'
“The whole affair is regarded as a practical joke, but the hanging of the effigy is being investigated and the guilty parties will be punished.”
Military and workplace hazing inquiries still follow this script: superiors concede the incident, label it the work of a few, and promise accountability while protecting the institution. The detail that the effigy carried a note about a misplaced uniform makes it feel less like a prank and more like ritual humiliation over a petty rule.
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