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

From our archives, 100 years ago

A French-Canadian laborer named Joe was at the Spokane train depot, waiting for his fiancée to arrive from Canada for their wedding the next day.

During the long wait, Joe decided to while away the time in the downtown saloons.

When he woke up on his wedding morning, he discovered that he was in jail.

He had been arrested for drunkenness.

In a panic, he told the jailers of his predicament. They said he could bail himself out if he had $6.

Luckily, he had $8.80, so he made bail, found his (steamed) fiancée and made it to the wedding with $2.80 available for their honeymoon.

From the employment beat: Some 92 “Austrians” were hiking dejectedly back from the Canadian border after their dreams of getting railroad work in Cranbrook were dashed.

A Spokane employment agent named Howard had promised them jobs. All they had to do was pay him a fee of $2.50 each.

Once they got to Cranbook, they found that there had been some mine labor problems in the region. So all of the miners had quit and snapped up all of the railroad jobs.

Howard, fees in pocket, prudently vanished from Spokane before the unhappy Austrians returned.