Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Two boys, 12 and 14, were rummaging through an abandoned house on Dean Avenue, looking for magazines, when they found something shocking: a bomb.

“When we found the thing hidden behind a stack of magazines, we thought it was a music roll,” said Charley Hensel, 12. “But when we found the fuse attached to it, ready to be lighted, we knew it was either a bunch of sticks of dynamite or an infernal machine, and hurried to the police station with it. We were careful not to stumble on the way down for fear we might be blown up.”

Police confirmed it was a “prepared explosive” and threw it into the Spokane River.

From the employment beat: Spokane’s teachers were not sitting idle as the summer vacation began.

Here’s the list of jobs that schoolteachers had lined up: sewing worker, hotel cleaner, office worker and lumber camp cook.

The city employment officer “expressed surprise at the varied practical training of the teachers and their willingness to perform useful labor so long as it is remunerative.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1950: The U.S. Supreme Court, in Henderson v. United States, struck down racially segregated railroad dining cars.