Clinton St. Quarterly, Vol. 7 No. 3 | Fall 1985 (Seattle) /// Issue 13 of 24 /// Master# 61 of 73

wards and a dance in the evening. In the morning a memorial service is held in the park. A white wooden cross is placed in the ground before the statue. There are patriotic speeches and prayers for dead comrades. Representatives of various organizations lay wreaths on the symbolic grave as the impassive doughboy looks on. On one side of “The Sentinel,” a plaque shows the profiles of the slain paraders of 1919 in relief, with the words, “We live in deeds not years; in thoughts not breaths; in feelings not in figures on a dial. To the memory of Warren O. Grimm, Arthur McElfresh, Ben Cassagranda, ErThe blackout does not disguise them. Everyone in town knows who they are----Centralia’s finest, its movers and shakers. They find Everest easily since he still lies in the corridor. Everest struggles to his feet and shouts, ‘Tell the boys I died for my class.” nest Dale Hubbard, slain on the streets of Centralia, Washington, Armistice Day, November 11, 1919. While on peaceful parade wearing the uniform of the country they loyally and faithfully served.” Since 1919, deaths have piled upon deaths—WWII, Korea, Vietnam. The statue’s message flavors present day sorrow and patriotism with old time hatred. This misrepresentation cast in bronze stands silently aggressive in the heart of Centralia’s town park. 22. W esley Everest’s body is fished out of the Chehalis River a day or two later and the unrecognizable mass of flesh is dumped in the jail corridor once more. The official report of the autopsy states that Everest died at the hands of persons unknown, and there the investigation ends. The coroner Livingstone is fond of joking that the cause of death is suicide. After several more days, men are taken from the jail to bury Everest. They are driven into the countryside in an enclosed truck. They bury his body where it is green and damp; there are fir trees and it is near a railroad track. It could be anyplace within a hundred miles of Centralia. 23. ./A. few years ago, after discussing the Centralia Massacre at school, a group of high school boys, one the son of a participant in the original Everest lynch party, hangs a dummy off Hangman’s Bridge as a prank. The next day the sheriff is at the school trying to find out who did it. 24. E leven Wobblies stand trial in Montesano, 75 miles away, near Aberdeen. The change of venue does not help much. Anti-Wobbly sentiment is as feverish there as in Centralia. National Guardsmen and Legionnaires camp outside the courthouse. Rumors are passed to the jury that the National. Guard is there to protect them from an army of IWW.waiting out in the woods to raid the trial, set the defendants free and lynch the jury. The jury is frightened and confused. The trial is a farce. The courtroom is filled with armed, uniformed Legionnaires. The judge declares most of the defense’s evidence inadmissable. Witnesses for the defendants are arrested for perjury as they leave the witness stand. The prosecution claims conspiracy and first degree murder. The defense claims selfdefense. Everest is the man most likely responsible for the marchers’ deaths, but all such evidence is pushed aside in order to convict the eleven Wobblies on trial. One of the defendants, a young man of twenty-one, breaks under the pressure of the long tortuous days and nights of interrogation in the Centralia jail. The jury declares him insane. Two others are acquitted. Seven are finally found guilty of murder in the second degree. Attached to the verdict is a plea for leniency signed by all twelve jurors. The judge, however, sentences the seven men to twenty-five to forty years at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary, sentences in excess of those allowed for second degree murder. The one defendant declared insane is soon transferred from the State Asylum to Walla Walla. Later, one of the jurors explains that he thought if they had found the defendants innocent, the Wobblies would have been lynched. He therefore opted for the second degree murder verdict, thinking that at least the men would be alive to appeal the decision. Seven of the jurors later work for the release of the men in Walla Walla, without much luck. Soon after the trial the prosecuting attorney, W.H. Abel, is made Washington State Liquor Commissioner. The Montesano library is named after him. Livingstone, the coroner, is appointed head of the Washington State Mental Hospital at Steilacoom. 25. J went to Centralia to visit my folks and talk to some people about the Centralia Massacre. I had come to the conclusion not to write about it, deciding that the unspoken censorship and the tension in Centralia were in my mind, just an adolescent memory. But I mentioned my intentions to my father. “Don’t write about that,” he said gruffly, “not around here. People don’t like it—don’t like thinking about it.” “You don’t want to write about that,” my mother said. “You’ll get people all upset.” 26. ^The town froze in November, 1919— for more than fifty years. Despite building a junior college and the introduction of new industries, the population stayed a constant 10,000. Centralia is different now. The population is creeping upward and Centralia sprawls into Chehalis. New people have moved to town, young people with children. People from California. People who don’t recognize the staunch old names and who don’t know that there are things one doesn’t talk about. The “in” place to live is no longer Edison, but up on Cooks Hill, breaking up the traditional neighborhoods and changing the character of the school district. The downtown businesses are being displaced by malls and chain stores. Weekend nights are no longer eerily quiet with deserted streets. The main drags are packed with young people in cars—honking, yelling, hanging out windows, blocking traffic. In the midst of those forgotten blocks of bloodshed, fear and hatred between First and Third Streets is a gleaming new Yamaha shop with a bright red sign and a window full of shiny motorcycles. 27. South of town at the Mellen Street Crossing a new bridge has replaced the one where Wesley Everest was lynched. Part of the old bridge can be seen below and a bit to the side of its successor. A sign names it “Bridge No. 67,1959”; but everyone still calls it Hangman’s Bridge. Leslie Hayertz is a writer living in Port Townsend. This is her first story in CSQ. 323-4281 717 BROADWAY E. 12-6pm daily george’s place 1900 East Aloha 324-4760 HAIR BY APPOINTMENT PARK AVENUE RECORDS comes to 532 QUEEN ANNEN. across from the uptown theatre Imports, Rare, Out of Print Albums and 45’s buy, sell, trade CM 516 15th Ave. East, Seattle 323-0936 Hours: Mon-Fri I l-6/Thurs 1l-7/Sat 11-5 We’d like to pull the wool over your eyes. Naturally. You won't count sheep between our 100% cotton flannel sheets —or under our comfy lamb’s wool comforter. This winter, be warm at prices that won’t get you down. M O 1 7 i-i x^ E ST FUTON Clinton St. Quarterly 15

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