A Spokane Farmer Vanished, and His Bloodied Hat Was All They Found
Gloystein was the last Republican in his neighborhood, warned in an anonymous 'Populist' letter to change his tune. Then he walked out into the night with callers and never came back — and the governor put up money for a body and a conviction.
A farmer named Gloystein, living near Spokane, disappeared from his home one night and has not since been heard of. He left with parties who called to see him about midnight. Next day his hat was found, battered and covered with blood. It is believed he was murdered by his political enemies.
He was a strong Republican — about the only one left in the neighborhood — and had several bitter controversies with third-party men, and had also been warned in a letter signed 'Populist' that if he didn't change his tune things would be made hot for him.
Gov. McGraw has offered a reward for the recovery of the body of Gloystein, and an additional $500 for the conviction of the murderers. The efforts of the Silver Federation to smirch the character of Gloystein have utterly failed, and the only reasonable explanation of his disappearance is that he was murdered.
Later developments do not confirm the theory that Gloystein, the missing Spokane county rancher, was killed as a result of a political quarrel. Appearances at first pointed strongly to this solution of his mysterious disappearance, but doubt was cast upon it by everything brought to light during the investigation. It has been shown that Gloystein had many personal enemies, and that his standing in the community was far from the best. Secret political or labor organizations have no legitimate place in a republican government, and when they exist it is but natural that suspicion should fall upon them in cases of this nature, but they should be proven guilty before being held up before the world as murderers. 'Give the devil his due,' though a trite maxim, is applicable.
“He had been warned in a letter signed 'Populist' that if he didn't change his tune things would be made hot for him.”
In 1894 Washington's politics ran hot enough that a missing farmer was instantly sorted into friend or enemy by party label. The governor's cash reward, the anonymous threatening letter, the neighbors' gossip about his 'standing in the community' — it's a template for how a disappearance becomes a Rorschach test for a divided public. A century later, we still watch the same thing happen in real time, and the body is still missing.
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