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

From our archives, 100 years ago

English evangelist Gipsy Smith was in Spokane for three weeks of preaching.

His purpose: “To bring men and women individually face to face with God. When I have accomplished this, my responsibility ceases.”

He was an early proponent of the Salvation Army. Smith said that crowds everywhere had been increasingly responsive to his message, largely because of “a profound feeling of unrest throughout the world.”

He added that the distress was especially bad in his home country of England where employers have been making plenty of money, but the workingman “has not fared so well.”

Smith’s sympathies were entirely with the workingman.

From the culture beat: Madame Emma Eames, famous soprano prima donna, and her new husband, Emilio de Gogorza, were in Spokane a week before her concert as part of their honeymoon in the West.

Her enthusiasm about Spokane made the town’s boosters “purr.” She loved the grandeur of the mountain scenery, the fresh food and the city’s architecture. She even loved the air itself.

“So delicious,” she said. “So fine for sleep.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1850: Flogging was abolished as a form of punishment in the U.S. Navy.