100 years ago in Spokane: Man drinks at breakfast, lunch and dinner; denies being a “drunkard”

From our archives, 100 years ago

A husband in a divorce proceeding refuted his wife’s charge that he was drunk all the time, including at the birth of their baby.

The man testified that he usually takes a few drinks a day – at breakfast, at lunch and at dinner. That did not, however, make him a drunkard. A drunkard, he said, is a “man who stands right up to the bar and stays with it until he gets drunk.”

Besides, he said, his wife often helped him use up the liquor he took home.

From the immigrant beat: A Spokane real estate man advanced a plan for encouraging war refugees from Belgium to immigrate to the region.

He said there are a great number of exiled, well-to-do Belgians who could be enticed to settle here.

The Spokane Chamber of Commerce’s immigration committee agreed to send out letters extolling the virtues of the climate and the agricultural land.

From the escapee beat: The warden of the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas, requested an investigation into how convict Frederick McGuire managed to escape from a train near Sandpoint several weeks earlier.

McGuire dove out the window of the moving train, despite the fact that two officers were escorting him and his feet were shackled.

McGuire was still at large.