Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 75 years ago

A suspicious customer and a quick-drawing police sergeant foiled an unusual robbery attempt in a Spokane clothing store. The customer told the sergeant that the man behind the store’s counter “did not look right” to him. The sergeant went in and asked the “clerk” who he was. He replied that he was the proprietor’s nephew.

The sergeant looked at him skeptically and said, “I’ve never seen you here before.”

The “clerk” pulled a gun, but the sergeant “beat him to the draw.” The sergeant discovered that the man and an accomplice had filled a suitcase with clothing and money from the till.

The proprietor was found locked in a lavatory.

From the court beat: Spokane’s police court was busy in September 1935, mainly with alcohol offenses.

There were 407 cases of “drunkenness” that month, plus another 15 drunken driving cases. Miscellaneous traffic violations made up most of the rest of the cases.

The effects of the Great Depression could be seen in one particular category. There were 168 vagrancy cases in the city that month.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1810: America’s first agricultural fair, the Berkshire Cattle Show, took place in Pittsfield, Mass.