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

From our archives, 100 years ago

Worshipers at the Gipsy Smith revival meeting in Spokane were treated to a titillating show when a deranged, screaming man jumped up on stage and began ripping off his clothes.

He managed to tear off his vest, his coat, a shoe “and was about to take off his trousers” when he was frog-marched off the platform and tossed out the front door.

The choir, meanwhile, continued to sing.

World-famous evangelist Smith took the stage later without comment. However, at one point he was forced to berate the crowds for running off with about 100 hymn books over the week. Anyone who would steal a hymn book, he mournfully noted, was probably beyond salvation.

From the bank fraud beat: The news out of Wallace was almost as sensational.

August Paulsen, banker, mining man and owner of the Paulsen Building in Spokane, had just been arrested in connection with the failure of the State Bank of Commerce.

Paulsen was one of six former directors under arrest for what The Spokesman-Review colorfully termed “jugglery of figures.”

They were charged with making false reports about the bank’s financial condition and continuing to receive deposits after the bank was known to be insolvent.