The Expulsion of S. B. Breirly
A man attempted to land in Kingston, only to be met by a mob of fifty men who forced his departure.
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.
A special dispatch from Kingston, in this state, says a number of men were on the wharf at that place last week when the steamer Delta landed. S. B. Breirly was aboard and Wharfinger Cardiff told him not to get off, as the people of Kingston would not tolerate his presence. He said he would land and climbed off, whereupon he was seized by five or six stalwart woodsmen, who proceeded to convince him of his error. He speedily agreed to go away on the Delta, but promised to go and never return if they would let him attend to some business before his departure. It was decided to give him four hours. At the end of that time, 50 citizens congregated at the wharf and warned him not to return to Kingston.
“Wharfinger Cardiff told him not to get off, as the people of Kingston would not tolerate his presence.”
While the specific reason for Breirly's expulsion is not detailed, such vigilante 'warn-outs' were common in frontier Washington as a means of enforcing social and civic norms through mob intimidation rather than the courts. This mirrors current anxieties about public belonging and the power of local committees to police who is allowed in a community.
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