Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Gambling and drinking: These age-old problems contributed to the downfall of two Spokane men in separate incidents.

In the first case, Daniel Sunderlin was arrested for embezzling over $1,000 from the Holley-Mason Hardware Company, where he had been secretary-treasurer. He lost it all playing cards.

A certain Miss Montgomery, who visited him in jail, implied that gambling wasn’t the only cause of his problems. She said his “infelicitous domestic relations” were also to blame – the 51-year-old Sunderlin had been separated from his wife for four years. Miss Montgomery and Sunderlin had since become very close. She hastened to add that their relationship was “more platonic than anything else.”

The second case proved that drinking and horse-driving do not mix. Two delivery men had been drinking on their way home in their delivery wagon. One of them tried to stand up from the wagon’s seat, toppled over backward and fell onto the horse.

The horse panicked and started on a dead run down Fifth Avenue. The man became entangled in the reins. The horse dragged him for two blocks over the frozen ground. He died of his injuries.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1959: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson died in a plane crash in Iowa.