100 years ago in Spokane: Borrowed matches a ruse to attack woman

From our archives, 100 years ago

A stranger wearing a gray suit and a slouch hat knocked at Mrs. J.M. Smith’s door on Third Avenue and asked for some matches.

When Mrs. Smith, 38, turned to get the matches, the man grabbed her, threw her on the bed and bound her hand and foot to it.

“He kept muttering threats of instant death if she made an outcry,” the newspaper said.

Her 7-year-old son, however, heard the commotion and raced out of the house to a neighbor’s house. The neighbor’s shouts alerted other neighbors and nearby police officers, who raced to the house. When they got to Mrs. Smith’s house, the man had fled. They saw a man running toward Liberty Park, but lost him.

This was not the first time police had been to the house. Several nights before, Mrs. Smith called police to report that a strange man was lurking in the vicinity. She told police that her husband was away, working as a ranch hand near Ritzville.

From the flood beat: The Kootenai River was in full flood, “submerging 250 square miles” between Bonners Ferry and the Canadian border.

The lower part of Bonners Ferry was “under three to seven feet of water.” The courthouse was flooded, and people were moving all of their furniture and goods to upper floors or higher ground.

People were frantically building dikes in hopes of holding back the water. Prisoners had been released from the county jail to assist.