Jim Kershner’s This day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Mecca Saloon was in hot water – all because the wife of the proprietor had a good pitching arm when she was angry.

Mrs. Ralph Frary was fined in police court for “throwing salt cellars” (salt shakers) through the windows of her husband’s saloon. This apparently stemmed from a dispute she was having with her husband, who was a National League umpire when he wasn’t in Spokane running a saloon.

When Mrs. Frary was hauled into police court for throwing salty fastballs, she took the opportunity to regale the judge with stories of the “ex-convicts” and “undesirables” who hung out at the Mecca Saloon and its penchant for illegally selling whiskey on Sundays.

The city commissioners subsequently called a hearing to air her charges. Yet Mrs. Frary didn’t show up, because she was hiding out in the woods near 29th Avenue with her baby. She said her husband’s business partner “openly threatened to abduct her child” if she appeared at the hearing. So Mrs. Frary and her baby spent all afternoon and evening in the woods.

The commission was debating whether it should revoke the license of this “den of vice.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1968: Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis.