Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The commandant of Fort George Wright in Spokane declared that he was all in favor of reinstating the Army “Canteen” – the kind that serves beer.

Why? Because it would be an improvement over the “low dives” that his men were frequenting elsewhere in Spokane.

Lt. Col. Charles W. Penrose said he believed that his men needed “a place where the enlisted men may go in the post, play cards, billiards and other harmless games and have a glass of beer.”

“It would keep him out of the low dives, such as your city affords at this time, and where the men associate with the very lowest class of humanity with which society is cursed,” said the commandant.

From the fire beat: George Oska, badly burned in a fire at his home, recovered sufficiently to tell investigators what had caused the fire.

He said he had attempted to extinguish a coal-oil lamp by “blowing in the chimney” – apparently too vigorously – which caused the lamp to explode. Flaming oil covered both Oska’s clothing and the room.

The gunshots that neighbors heard? A revolver in a trunk, exploding in the conflagration.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1777: Gen. George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, Pa., to camp for the winter. … 1910: The artificial fiber rayon was first commercially produced.