100 years ago in Spokane: Federal officials determine accused spy was not German spy

Elizabeth Guistorff (also spelled Guistorf) was most definitely not Madame H, the mysterious German spy.

In fact, she was not a spy of any kind. Federal authorities in California, where she was arrested, concluded that she simply suffered from “mental aberration.”

Or, as the Spokane Daily Chronicle put it in a headline, “Miss Guistorff Is Simply Queer,” using the old-fashioned meaning of the word.

From the movie beat: “Cleopatra: Vampire of the Nile,” starring the “peerless Theda Bara,” was opening a weeklong run at the Casino Theater.

The ad, featuring a drawing of a scantily clad Cleopatra, called the movie “the most costly, magnificent and most stupendous production ever conceived or presented on screen or elsewhere.”

Tickets were 50 cents, or 25 cents for the balcony.

From the sledding beat: A 14-year-old boy was injured while sledding down the steep Howard Street hill, between Seventh and Sixth avenues.

The boy was sledding at night and ran into an auto. He suffered broken ribs and a possible concussion.

The snow was also a factor in another accident. Workers were shoveling snow from the roof of the Spokane Hotel and had roped off an area of the sidewalk below. A man stepped under the rope and was hit in the head by a lump of snow and ice thrown from the roof. He was being treated for bruises on his head and shoulders.