Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Bessie St. Germain, 25, was walking on Sinto Avenue and Monroe Street to the butcher’s shop on Saturday evening when she saw a tall man walking fast in her direction, wearing a dark overcoat.

“He brushed his right shoulder against me, he raised his hand and pushed me away,” she said. “The next moment I felt something hot strike my face and I was stunned.”

Her face had been splashed with carbolic acid.

“The man ran, dropping the bottle as he dashed away,” she said. “I have no idea who he was.”

Miss St. Germain was treated for serious burns on the entire left side of her face. Doctors were confident she wouldn’t be permanently disfigured. 

Police found the empty bottle and obtained fingerprints. They were working on the theory that the man mistook her for someone else.

From the election beat: Mrs. George Goble was elected to the Spokane School Board – the first woman elected to that body.

She publicly thanked “the splendid men and women who voted for me.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1854: Pope Pius IX proclaimed the Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was free of original sin from the moment of her own conception.