100 years ago in Spokane: Hotel clerk nabs teen thief; wildfires surpass ‘human control’

Miss Anna White, 23, chased a young hotel thief down Riverside Avenue, nabbed him, and “held him prisoner until the arrival of the police.”

Andrew Johnson, 17, had registered at the White Hotel, where White was working as a desk clerk. He paid for his room with a dollar bill, and she went into another room to make change from the cash box.

A few minutes after she showed the boy to his room, she heard a door slam in the cash box room. Johnson had apparently noticed where she kept the key and pilfered the cash box.

She went to investigate and saw Johnson running out into the hall and out into the street. She chased him down and grabbed him. He readily admitted the theft, and police found $144 in currency in his pockets.

He told police that he needed the money for a trip to see his father in Montreal, and when he saw where the hotel money was kept, he had become “tempted.”

He was booked on burglary charges.

From the wildfire beat: The forest fires in North Idaho had “gone past human control,” according to a headline.

About 40 square miles were ablaze between Sandpoint and Hope, Idaho. It was growing into the worst wildfires in the region since the Big Burn of 1910.

Thousands of men were now fighting the fire. One of the hardest-hit areas was the Pack River region.

“The lookouts have become useless, because of the smoke, and we are putting on foot patrols to watch for new fires,” said a National Forest superintendent.