100 years ago in Spokane: Sportsmen target magpies, crows, coyotes, hawks and owls along county roads to help preyed-on birds

Spokane sportsmen declared war on the so-called “enemies of game birds.”

They planned to go gunning for magpies, crows, coyotes, hawks and owls, which they believed to prey on the kinds of birds they wanted to encourage: quail, partridge, “Hungarian pheasant,” and grouse.

The originator of this idea was the former small game commissioner of Spokane County. After each Sunday trap shoot at the Spokane Gun Club, members will “take to the country roads in automobiles and hunt down pests which killed many game birds each year and destroy the nests and young.”

The hunters would be divided into teams and would be awarded “points for birds or coyotes killed.” Winners would “be the guests of the losing team at a supper to be served following the return to the city.”

From the robbery beat: Burglars broke into several grocery stores on the North Side. At the Shaw Grocery, robbers “boldly partook of cake, three nips of grape juice and a bottle of milk.” At the nearby Broadway Grocery, robbers took candy, gum, pennies, and “cigarette makings.”

Police arrested “two boy suspects,” who were turned over to juvenile authorities.