Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A thief with a finely developed conscience walked into Spokane police headquarters and turned himself in.

The 35-year-old itinerant house painter said that, the day before, he had been dead broke on the platform at the Northern Pacific railroad depot in nearby Otis.

He was hungry and cold. Then he noticed that the depot operator and his wife had closed up the ticket window and boarded the train into Spokane. But the window was slightly ajar. In his desperation, he pried open the window and grabbed the cash drawer, taking $28.25.

He then came to Spokane, bought a pair of trousers and a pair of shoes. But his mind was not at rest.

“I just got to thinking that maybe my stealing that money would work a hardship on the operator,” he said. “I know how those things are. He has a wife and family, probably, and if he has to make up that loss out of his own pocket, it may work a great hardship on him.”

So he walked into the police station and confessed all. He was in jail pending the outcome of his case.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1687: French explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle – the first European to navigate the length of the Mississippi River – was murdered by mutineers in present-day Texas.

1962: Bob Dylan’s first album, eponymously titled “Bob Dylan,” was released by Columbia Records.