A Brave Escape on the Road to Chehalis
A young woman encounters a would-be robber on the road, outwitting him with nothing but her voice and her speed.
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.
CENTRALIA, Dec. 29.—Mrs. Josie Elder, a young woman, was assaulted by a tramp between here and Chehalis yesterday. He demanded her money and threatened to kill her with a big stone he held in his hand if she did not do as he told her. Instead of obeying him, Mrs. Elder screamed and ran. The tramp followed her, but with a fair start and a good road, she could outrun anyone under the circumstances. The tramp gave up the chase. It is supposed that the thief came back here, but he has not yet been captured.
“Instead of obeying him, Mrs. Elder screamed and ran.”
Travel between Centralia and Chehalis today is a brief, routine highway hop, but in 1903, the lonely stretches of road between these growing towns were sites of genuine vulnerability for travelers, reflecting the era's anxieties about the 'tramp'—a common term for the transient, unemployed men displaced by the instability of the local boom-and-bust economy.
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