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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Canadian military authorities were seeking to obtain 3,000 Inland Northwest horses to send to the British cavalry service. 

Rosalia horse breeder M.W. Merritt said he had sold many horses to the English government during the Boer War, and now, with the Great War raging in Europe, the English needed more horses than ever. Merritt said his Rosalia horses “established a record” for tractability and endurance during the earlier war.

However, Merritt added that he doubted if 3,000 such mounts could be found in all of Eastern Washington and North Idaho, because currently the supply was limited.

From the medicine beat: An ad for Stuart’s Calcium Wafers said they were the guaranteed cure for pimples.

“Don’t Try to Paint Pimples,” said the ad’s headline. Instead, eat some of those wonderful wafers and you’ll be cured of bad boils in a week. 

They contained no poisonous mercury and “no venomous opiates.” They contained simply the most “effective blood-cleanser known, calcium sulphide.”

The ad advised “not to wait forever and a day to get rid of your pimples.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1892: The first long-distance telephone line – between New York and Chicago – was officially opened. It could handle only one call at a time.