A Midnight Knock, a Bloody Hat, and the Farmer Who Vanished

Over near Mica, in Spokane county, of this state, lived in happiness with his little family Charles Gloystein, a thrifty young man, devoted in his adherence to the Republican party. His house was surrounded by a neighborhood of Populists, who saw fit to institute in the neighborhood or village an oath-bound secret society denominated the Freeman’s Protective Silver Association. Mr. Gloystein was informed that the society had for its object the peaceful protection of the weak, and being a man of humane promptings, he applied for membership. Submitting himself for initiation, he probably soon found that such membership would materially interfere with his conception of his duties as a citizen, so when opportunity for withdrawal was presented he declined to go further into the mysteries of the order. He was admonished to remember his oath and allowed to depart. The glimpse he had taken presumably aroused him to the necessity of a firm stand against lawlessness, for it is now an open secret that the real purpose of the secret society he was tempted to enter is to further the cause of Populism and resist legal processes in the collection of debts.

No doubt the Populists there, as elsewhere, frequently referred to the prospect of that party carrying Oregon in the late election in the Webfoot state. The Waterloo really met by the Populists in Oregon naturally chagrined the boasters elsewhere, and this seems to have been specially true in that hotbed of Populism. Mr. Gloystein no doubt enjoyed the discomfiture of his Pop neighbors, which enjoyment prompted him to post beside the road a board on which was inscribed a chiding reference to the glorious news from Oregon. This enraged the Populists to such a degree that Gloystein was hung in effigy at the neighborhood schoolhouse by their leaders. The effigy was branded with Gloystein’s name, and threatening, abusive and obscene inscriptions marked the scene of outrage.

Shortly after, Gloystein was called from his bed at midnight and was invited out. He went to his bedroom to don his attire, and to his wife’s inquiries he replied that he knew not the man’s name that called for him, and that the loan of his wagon was wanted. He stepped out into the darkness and that was the last seen of him. Search next day was rewarded with the finding of his bloody hat, evidencing that its wearer had been foully murdered. Zealous search for the body has proven fruitless, and the disappearance of Charley Gloystein is enshrouded in deep mystery. Spokane county has offered $500 for the recovery of his body, dead or alive. On behalf of the state, Gov. McGraw has offered $500 for the recovery of the body and another $500 for the arrest and conviction of the person or persons guilty of his murder. If it be possible to unravel that mystery it will certainly be ferreted out. And we earnestly pray that it may be.

Meantime investigation has developed the fact that the mysterious society that Charley Gloystein’s manhood deterred him from joining is a Populist institution, fidelity to Populism being necessary to membership therein. There are evidences, too, that other men besides Gloystein in that neighborhood were threatened with violence for opposition to the society. Some have declared that they were coerced or misled into membership, and that, while they do not approve its tenets, they are held to membership through fear and bound to secrecy by their solemn oath.

One could scarcely imagine a more damnable condition. Opposition to law, such as this society evidently sets up, is high treason. Enforced membership therein, such as is portrayed, is enough to eternally damn the organization and forever disgrace, if not completely annihilate, the party whose interests it is established to serve, if, in addition to this, it is guilty of the murder of Gloystein, words fail to portray the sense of horror that will take possession of law-abiding and liberty-loving people everywhere, who will rise up in their might and declare that if this be Populism, or if it be indorsed, aided, abated, or in any way countenanced by Populism, then Populism must be crushed out, as would be any other menace to civil or religious liberty.