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

From our archives, 100 years ago

It was a routine Halloween in 1911, or to put it another way, “a continuous tale of anguish and despair.”

Spokane police responded to 300 calls. Most were for the usual pranks: Knocking down fences, signs, streetlights and outhouses.

A lot of windows were smashed. Some kids hijacked a bakery wagon and hauled it around the streets. Some other kids did the same with a wagon “belonging to the Chinese downtown.”

One common prank was to “grease” the streetcar tracks so that the wheels would merely spin. One 12-year-old was so “engrossed” in his task of “throwing tattered clothing on the roof and doors” of a stalled streetcar that he failed to notice a bicyclist careening down the street. He ended up in the hospital and so did the cyclist.

In another incident, a group of five young men were apprehended for various “depredations.” The arresting officer left them in custody of a somewhat elderly citizen while the officer went off to fetch the patrol wagon. The gang proceeded to “set upon the old man,” punch him in the eye, knock him down and flee.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1861: During the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln named Gen. George B. McClellan general in chief of the Union armies, succeeding Winfield Scott.