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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

» On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A carpenter and his dog were walking on a high railroad trestle near the Taft Tunnel when a train came roaring down on them.

The man was able to slip down to a side platform, but the dog remained on the track. The man tried to grab the dog. The train struck the man and hurled him to the ground 60 feet below.

The man died in a Wallace hospital. The dog scampered away unscathed.

From the love and marriage file: A police court judge took pity on a young Spokane couple who had been thrown in jail for immorality.

The 19-year-old woman said she had been abandoned by her first husband days after their marriage. Her new man, a clerk, had promised to take care of her and marry her. But he caught pneumonia and was unable to work.

They lived together in a rooming house while the woman nursed him through his illness. Yet both were fervently determined to marry. The judge gave them a month to do exactly that.

The judge said if he had known all the circumstances he “wouldn’t have kept you children in jail as long as I did.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1742: Handel’s “Messiah” was first performed publicly, in Dublin, Ireland.