Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Spokane police nabbed Henry H. Hollinsworth, the alleged “yegg,” or safecracker, as he walked along Main Avenue in downtown Spokane.

“There he is!” said one of the officers. Hollinsworth showed no concern as they approached – although he had been the subject of a manhunt for days – and offered no resistance when one of them wrapped him in a bear hug. “What’s all this about?” he asked police.

He had been identified by officers as the man who crept into the Long Lake offices of Washington Water Power in the wee hours intending to blow the safe. Police were waiting in the dark, but the burglar got away when an officer’s shotgun misfired. One claimed to have identified Hollinsworth from the muzzle flash.

Hollinsworth claimed he was a schoolteacher who had taught at Springdale and Deep Creek and had nothing to do with the burglary. He said he went to Long Lake a week earlier to inquire about wages owed to him, but he said he was in a Sprague Avenue lodging house the night of the burglary.

From the marriage beat: The National Desertion Bureau, whose job was to track down husbands who deserted their families, came up with an eyebrow-raising statistic: “The massive matron is the meekest and the most enduring.” The bureau claimed their records indicated “the little wives are the spitfires” and were more inclined to nag their husbands.