Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

From our archives, 100 years ago

A rumored gold strike in central Idaho was decimating the male population in towns such as Elk City and Stites, not far from Grangeville.

All of the able-bodied men were “jumping” their jobs in these towns and taking off into the mountains, toward the gold fields in what was called the Ten Mile District.

A waitress at a hotel in Stites bemoaned the fact that “not enough men are left in town to make a dance possible.”

From the religion file: A Spokane evangelist declared that God “is a total stranger” to Spokane.

“Look at our young people, godless, indifferent, useless, hopeless,” he thundered during a tent revival at Astor and Baldwin streets. “If any of them was to die tonight, what would be his fate? It is awful to think of.”

He wasn’t much more impressed with the city’s churchgoers, either. How many, he asked, “go to church on Sunday and pray and sing and go right home and live just like the devil?”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1836: An army of Texans led by Sam Houston defeated the Mexicans at San Jacinto, assuring Texas independence. … 1918: Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the German ace known as the “Red Baron,” was killed in action during World War I. … 1960: Brazil inaugurated its new capital, Brasilia, transferring the seat of government from Rio de Janeiro.