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

From our archives, 100 years ago

Dan McGarr, a con artist and tippler, must have thought he had stumbled upon the greatest scam ever.

He had been making a career out of marching into Spokane’s saloons, announcing that he was an “internal revenue officer” – sent from Washington, D.C., by the head man, Cole – and demanding that the proprietors give him samples.

Typically, he told the saloon proprietors that he needed a tour of the wine-and-beer cellars and liquor storage facilities. They would escort him down into the basement and he would pretend to “inspect” the place. He would pronounce everything satisfactory, then ask for several bottles of scotch, wine or beer as “samples to be analyzed.” He walked off with many expensive bottles of booze.

Occasionally, he issued edicts to the proprietors. He made one saloonkeeper remove a display of “stomach bitters” because they did not comply with the “pure food law.”

Finally, a bartender at the Turf Bar became suspicious of him and trailed him after he left the bar. He was captured at another bar, the Price Bar, after the barkeepers demanded that he show his credentials. He had none.

He was arrested and bound over to the grand jury on $500 bond.