From our archives, 100 years ago

An attempt to palm off two unrelated orphan infants as twins failed utterly at the Spokane Children’s Home.

Some unknown person abandoned the children and somehow spread the tale that they were twins, in an apparent attempt to increase the odds that they would be adopted.

Two women immediately showed up at the orphanage hoping to adopt the twins. When the children were examined, it was apparent that they weren’t twins at all. One was 2 months old, the other 4 months old.

Both women left in a hurry, saying nothing but “real twins” would suffice. The orphanage was looking into the situation.

From the personal grooming beat: A group of Spokane students at the University of Washington were spearheading a facetious facial hair requirement.

The six students, all seniors studying law, declared that “either a beard or mustache should be made a prerequisite for graduation.”

The idea swept the school. The captains of both the football team and baseball team soon “appeared with hirsute additions.”

The “faculty looked dubious” about the whole scheme, but the students were courting a more important branch of public opinion. The mustaches, the paper said, “makes coeds gasp.”