Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 260, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1916 — Thousand Seattle Men Spanked for Their Curiosity [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Thousand Seattle Men Spanked for Their Curiosity

SEATTLE, WASH.—More than 1,000 prominent Seattle men have actually been spanked with a rubber hose by Ed Murray, a clerk in the city-county building, because of their curiosity to look at pictures. The list includes

superior court judges, city councilmen, heads of city and county departments, dozens of lawyers, and an assorted crowd of others, some of them from other cities. Because each victim wanted to see his friend spanked the news has been kept quiet. “Have you seen the Seattle blackmail pictures?” whispered Murray to a fellow worker one day. “No,” was the reply. “Well, they’re going to be de-

stroyed tomorrow,” he went on. “If you want to see them I can fix it up for you.” Then Murray and his victim went through dark hallways to one of the long record vaults on the first floor of the county-city building. “I’ll keep watch,” was the next word; “they’re in the box in the corner. Just pick ’em out.” ■ ■ When the victim leaned low, the trusty rubber hose came into play. “Whack!” it resounded as it hit the victim where dad used to apply the paddle. “Wow!” wailed the victim. Murray, who is gray headed and always serious appearing, discovered he had uncovered a great indoor sport. His victim worked with him in decoying others, and Murray became a master in the art of swinging the hose. “Name, please,” he asks them, after landing the one swift blow. Red faced and twitching between agony and laughter, the victims gave their names and were recorded in Murray’s book, which now contains more than 1,000 names. , . „ , One man came■ all .the way from Everett, walked into the comptrollers office, went to Murray, and asked confidentially if it could be fixed up so he could see the pictures. Murray arranged it. And the man went back to Everett and sent down more victims. ,