Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Police still had no clues in the disappearance of Ole Hermanson, who went out for a walk downtown and never returned.

Friends and relatives were concerned that he had become the victim of foul play because he was wearing an expensive diamond ring and carrying a fancy watch. However, his adult son raised one other possibility, that he “might have temporarily lost his mind and wandered away.” He added that recently his father had difficulty “keeping track of the days of the week and asked whether it was Thursday or Friday.”

From the court beat: A Spokane boy was on trial for a “statutory charge” regarding the “downfall” of a 15-year-old girl he took on a date.

The boy said he was enticed by the girl when she “winked and smiled” at him when they met at a noodle joint. He said he often saw her at noodle joints and tamale kitchens.

“You make a business of going to these noodle joints to get girls for immoral purposes, do you not?” the prosecutor asked. “No, sir,” the boy replied. “I like tamales and noodles, but have nothing to do with the girls.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1959: President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Hawaii statehood bill. (Hawaii became a state on Aug. 21, 1959.)