100 years ago in Spokane: Courtroom fight spills out onto the streets

Two men from Davenport were facing off in a Spokane courtroom – and wrestling outside the courtroom.

H. Maynard Warwick, a businessman, was being sued by W.A. Stroud, a contractor, for “alienation of affection.” He claimed that Warwick was stealing his wife, Mrs. Bessie Stroud.

In the final hours of a trial, it was clear the ill-feeling between the two men had reached a breaking point, so the bailiff ordered the men to stay away from each other while the jury deliberated.

They did not comply.

They got into a shoving match on the sidewalk. Warwick tripped on the curbing and fell down and Stroud proceeded to kick him.

Bessie Stroud witnessed the fight and ran upstairs for help. The attorneys ran down and put a stop to the fight. There were apparently no serious injuries.

The jury had not yet reached a verdict.

From the war beat: Two German nationals, Thomas Lebus and Edward Loesch, returned to Spokane after being interned at Fort Douglas, Wyoming, for the duration of the war.

Now, they said, they were broke and jobless.

“The amount of money we were given on being released is as nothing,” Loesch said. “We must find work at once or we will starve. … We are willing to work at anything.”

They had been been arrested for making “disloyal utterances.”