Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Spokane celebrated New Year’s Eve a night early in 1911 – because the true New Year’s Eve fell on a Sunday night, when all saloons were closed and liquor sales prohibited. Police had earlier announced they would enforce the Sunday closing laws rigorously.

So the celebrations, 24 hours premature, lacked a true New Year’s Eve spark. Several thousand people gathered at the Silver Grill for a party, but the only rowdiness occurred when a “venturesome guest tried to climb the big Christmas tree and strip it of its decorations.”

Other than that, nothing worse than “a little surreptitious kissing” occurred.

From the crime beat: Spokane police said that about 4,500 people were arrested in Spokane in 1911. The miscreants’ occupations broke down roughly like this: laborers, 2,000; teamsters, 250; miners, 180; cooks, 175; servants, 150; waiters, 120; peddlers, 100; and lumberjacks, 50.

Other occupations represented in the arrest statistics: newspapermen, 24; physicians, 27; actors, 16; and ballplayers, one. Of the major professions, only preachers and schoolteachers were not represented.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1759: Arthur Guinness founded his famous brewery at St. James’s Gate in Dublin.