A Confessed Killer, a Small-Town Jail, and a Mob Talked Down
Robert Day, held for murder near Woodland, is spared a lynching by 'cooler heads' at a Kerns mass meeting — but Cowlitz County's anger is barely contained.
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.
Robert Day, who murdered T. C. Beebe, near Woodland, in Cowlitz county, a few days ago, will be lucky if he escapes lynching. There is a bitter feeling against him throughout the county. Wednesday night a mass meeting was held at Kerns, and inflammatory speeches were made. Some wanted to march to Kalama, batter down the jail and kill the prisoner. Cooler heads prevailed and trouble was averted. They advised that no violent work be done at present. Day has a bad record. He was a guerrilla during the war and boasts of having killed thirty men while in service. He told a Portland young man who saw him at Kalama a day or two ago, that he shot men just to see them fall. It is said he has killed three men since the war.
“He told a Portland young man who saw him at Kalama a day or two ago, that he shot men just to see them fall.”
A century before 'mob justice' became a phrase we debate online, a Washington county came within one hot speech of battering down a jail. The episode is a reminder that due process has always depended on someone in the crowd arguing for restraint — and that the line between a trial and a lynching was thin, and unevenly applied.
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