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

From our archives, 100 years ago

Wong Yet, an 85-year-old Chinaman, was leaving Spokane and returning to his homeland to die, said The Spokesman-Review.

He had been homesick for a while apparently, but the final straw came when the “reform branch of the Chinese of the Pacific Coast” ordered that all Chinese immigrants “cut off their queues.” Queues were the traditional pigtails that many men wore.

“Wong decided to escape the ruling by going home,” said the paper.

The paper pointed out that he was returning to a land that was having its problems that winter. A rice famine was causing much suffering.

From the gambling beat: A gambling parlor in Spokane was taking bets on an unusual race: the upcoming city commissioners’ race.

Dozens of candidates were vying for commissionerships after the city changed its charter and instituted the commission form of government.

“A bet of $50 that Funk would poll more votes than Long was not on the boards long enough for the ink to dry before it was covered,” said the paper.

N.W. Durham, a former managing editor of The Spokesman-Review, was one of the betting favorites. But it turned out to be a bad bet. Durham lost.

Also on this date

From the Associated Press

1953: Soviet dictator Josef Stalin died after three decades in power.