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

From our archives, 100 years ago

Here’s a police dragnet that would never happen today: An intensive statewide search for two eloping teens.

Marcel Parsons, 18, and Bessie Klemgard, 16, the daughter of a Pullman bank president, were found after a two-day search.

Young Parsons actually returned to his Spokane home when one of his friends, identified only as a Boy Scout, convinced him that he should turn himself in. Miss Klemgard was subsequently found in a Spokane hotel, where the couple had been staying since running off together from Moscow, Idaho.

The incident had a happy ending. The parents decided they had no objection to “an immediate marriage,” which took place the next day.

From the fallen women beat: One member of a commission investigating the issues of low wages in Spokane arrived at a provocative conclusion. If women’s wages were raised, the problems of immorality and prostitution would be vastly curtailed.

“Our commission found that many women and girls were working for from $5 to $6 per week, and we also found that it required at least $9 per week to provide food, lodging and necessary clothing,” he said, “Where, then, is the difference between salary and expenses to come from? I leave it to your own intelligence to answer the question.”