Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A public warning was issued to the boys, identities unknown, who stole 50 items of canned goods from the Interstate Fair grounds: Do not eat the food. Those 50 cans were actually part of the “ptomaine poisoning” exhibit brought to the fair by city health officer Dr. J.B. Anderson.

The cans were supposed to show homemakers what to avoid with fruit, vegetables and fish. They had swollen ends and faulty seals. 

“The gas in some of the cans had become so marked that great danger of ptomaine is believed to exist should the contents be used for food,” Anderson said.

Nevertheless, someone stole the cans from outside the fair.

“The theft is attributed to boys … on the ground that adults have too much sense,” said the paper.

From the reservation beat: Congressman C.C. Dill told the local chamber of commerce that he would make certain the “allotment and the opening” of the south half of the Colville Reservation would take place as planned. 

Dill apparently believed this would do the tribes good and bring them into the modern age  He said that “on the south half he saw hundreds of Indians camped, catching and drying salmon as they did a century ago, while on the north half, which has been opened, the Indians are raising crops and sending their children to school.”