Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Spokane hotel clerk David H. Bernard’s buddies were calling him “Daredevil Dave, the Millionaire Clerk” after Bernard learned he had come into a substantial inheritance from his grandfather.

The word “millionaire” was a stretch, since the inheritance was $20,000. But that was a fortune in 1910. It was especially welcome to young Bernard, who had been a struggling actor and vaudeville performer for a few years before moving to Spokane and taking a job as night clerk at the Alger Hotel for $16 a week.

Bernard was heading off to Philadelphia to collect his fortune, but he planned to return.

“Yes, I like the Spokane girls; some of them are dandy,” he said. “I guess I’ll come back after one.”

From the corporal punishment beat: A Newport school principal was acquitted of battery, after she administered a “whipping” to a 7-year-old student.

The child was fighting with other students on the way home. “Warnings failed to have the desired effect,” said the paper, so the principal administered corporal punishment.

The boy’s mother was incensed and caused a battery warrant to be issued. A jury listened to evidence for six hours and set the principal free.