Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

William K. Wishop, a former Spokane tailor on trial for bigamy, told reporters that “I am not guilty of any wrong, I just got stung when I married a woman who advertised in the newspaper for a man.”

He said that he married the current Mrs. Wishop after he read her ad in the paper and that, essentially, the marriage had crumbled after only about a month.

Mrs. Wishop had an entirely different take on the situation. She said he deserted her to pursue another woman in Ohio, whom he subsequently married. She said she also discovered that her husband had already been married four times and had never secured a divorce in any of those cases.

Mr. Wishop countered that he had been married only once before and had in fact obtained a divorce. The case was scheduled for trial soon.

From the telegraph file: The Spokesman-Review reported that it had set a record for the longest message in local telegraph history, at 16,000 words.

The message consisted of the entire text of the new federal currency bill, just passed by Congress.

Western Union had to roust extra operators out of bed to handle the huge message. The paper said it was the only paper on the West Coast to order the full text.