Jim Kershner’s This day in history » On the Web: spokesman.com/topics/local-history

From our archives, 100 years ago

An “appalling picture of misery” emerged in a Spokane courtroom.

A Spokane woman had been badly burned, and her husband burned to death, in a fire in their house one month earlier. The woman was treated for weeks in the hospital and had been living in a lodging room for only three days when a police sergeant went to check on her – and discovered her surrounded by “needles and dope.”

It turned out she had been a drug addict for 16 years. Since she was “penniless, friendless” and unable to care for herself, the sergeant took her in for some treatment.

During a court hearing, she began rambling wildly and incoherently. The judge tried to explain that he just wanted to get her in to see a doctor, but she started sobbing so violently a matron had to remove her from the courtroom and take her to the county jail.

From the music beat: An Italian virtuoso named Guido Deiro, in Spokane on tour, gushed effusively about the versatility, tone and beauty of his chosen instrument.

There were no limitations to this instrument, he said. He could play any score ever written.

His instrument? The accordion.

Also on this date

From the Associated Press

1961: TWA became the first airline to show regularly scheduled in-flight movies.