Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Spokane’s railroad depot masters said they had no plans to institute a rule recently adopted in Swiss train depots: No kissing on the platform.

The Swiss said they wanted to protect young girls traveling alone. But the Spokane train men said the rule was so broad as to be ridiculous.

“How about brides, with all their girl friends on tiptoe to give them a farewell smack, and all the boys looking on and wishing they dared?” said one depot master. “No, indeed, such a rule would be a joke. … The public would mob us, if we tried it.”

Another depot master said the “farewell kiss” is one of the sadder sights on a train platform, but he would certainly not want to ban it. He added that one of the more amusing sights is that of the Italians, “who will kiss and embrace each other on parting like a couple of school girls.”

From the theater beat: Spokane’s Grace Boucher, once considered “the best horsewoman in the West,” planned to return to the Pendleton Roundup, but on the stage instead of a horse. 

The former “Cowgirl Queen of Oregon” was producing and starring in a stage version of her life.

She added that she did not care to return to the cowgirl’s life because she preferred to be a “fine lady” in “dainty, stylish clothes.”