A century ago in the Inland Northwest

A particularly grisly death made the news in Spokane.

Joel C. Dickson, 26, stepped onto the Hotel Arthur’s elevator, which, unfortunately, was not being run by the regular elevator operator. That operator had wanted to go out that night, so another man agreed to fill in, even though he was a novice. He was actually a railroad man from Montana.

When Dickson began to step out on the fifth floor, the novice operator gave the lever a sudden jerk and the machine shot downward. Dickson’s head was caught between the floor and the top of the elevator cage, crushing him to death.

The reporter for The Spokesman-Review used an unfortunate phrase to describe why the elevator operator jerked the lever in a panic. He wrote that the operator “lost his head.”