Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A “romantic Boston widow,” 50, thought Spokane seemed like a good place to move – so she advertised in the Spokane Daily Chronicle for a husband.

She listed her qualifications as follows: “About 50, but pass for much younger, as I am fairly good looking, good figure, plump, weigh 122 pounds, medium height, educated and refined and a good conversationalist. A musician and a vocalist. Up-to-date on public questions. A temperate woman of cheerful, jolly nature but of good moral tendencies. I love nature and romantic scenery and am quite romantic in my nature.”

She was seeking “a widower or bachelor who is of good education and intelligent, of good morals and some money.”

She added, however, that she didn’t want to “marry for money or be married for my money.”

From the asylum beat: The headline read, “Crazy Men on the Run.”

Three criminally insane inmates of the state hospital at Medical Lake jumped from a window in the men’s ward. The guards and a posse were in hot pursuit, but so far the men were still missing. A new hospital wing was under construction, but, meanwhile, security was lacking in the old wing.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1776: Capt. Nathan Hale, 21, was hanged as a spy by the British.