Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Spokane Mayor W.J. Hindley stood before 1,500 students at Lewis and Clark High School and weighed in on the subject of – girls’ apparel.

He complained that high school girls were guilty of “two extremes in dress,” and it was “hard to tell which is the worst.” 

“We find the girl of the one kind slovenly in her dress, with her hair falling over her neck, with her waist and skirt parted, and perhaps one corner of her skirt dragging the ground,” the mayor said. “On the other hand, there is the overdressed girl. She thinks of nothing but her dress and her attractive appearance. She comes to the classroom in costly dresses that scantily robe her body. In her hand she constantly carries her vanity box, which to her is of more importance than her books. Her hat is crowded high with costly plumage of birds which God never meant to be slaughtered to satisfy the vanity of human beings.”

He urged the girls in the audience to “strike the happy medium and be normal healthy girls.”

The student body seemed receptive to this message. They gave him a standing ovation and three cheers.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1953: Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier in Newport, R.I.