100 years go in Spokane: Safecrackers make off with nearly $1,000 from downtown Buick dealership

“Yeggmen” – safecrackers – broke into the safe at the Eldridge Buick Co. and made off with between $800 and $1,000 in cash.

They apparently used crowbars and other tools from the company’s machine shop to pry open the safe. They entered the building in the middle of the night, probably through a basement window.

Police were dusting for fingerprints.

From the traffic beat: W.A. King made Spokane history.

He was the first man ever arrested for speeding – in a streetcar.

King was a motorman on the Rockwood line of the Spokane Traction Co., and he was caught racing down the tracks at 32 mph. The speed limit for autos was 20 mph, and a police officer stopped the streetcar and informed King that the limit applied to streetcars as well.

King was scheduled to appear in police court.

From the orphanage beat: Waller Shobe, superintendent of the Montana State Orphan’s Home in Twin Bridges, was named the first superintendent of the Hutton Children’s Home, aka the Hutton Settlement.

L.W. Hutton said he wanted the “best of everything “ for his new institution, and Shobe fit the bill. He had made a “remarkable” success at the Montana institution.

His wife, Isabel Shobe, would also be employed as matron. (As it turned out, both would be gone within a year.)

Work was progressing rapidly at the site in preparation for the formal opening in the fall.

From the mystery beat: A young woman tagged the “Mystery Girl” in Spokane Daily Chronicle headlines over the past few weeks was found not guilty in a larceny case in which she was accused of stealing a cloak.

After thanking jurors, Lillian Davis, 19, was taken back to jail to await trial on a charge of stealing a diamond lavalier.

She was called the Mystery Girl because she claimed to be the daughter of a wealthy Alaska tycoon and a student at both the University of Washington and Stanford University.

However, authorities could not locate any relatives and eventually a public defender was appointed to represent her.