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

From our archives, 100 years ago

The news was dominated by two sensational stories:

• Two women engaged in a vicious tussle that lasted “from the front porch to the gate and back to a cherry tree in the yard.”

Mrs. Ripley had dropped off her baby at a foundlings home in Spokane but couldn’t pay the fee. So the proprietor, Mrs. Russell, held the infant’s clothes “for security” pending payment.

But one night, Mrs. Ripley surreptitiously entered the house, rifled through the drawers, and found the clothes. She was making off with them when Mrs. Russell confronted her and started a “set-to.”

The severity of the fight can be inferred from one piece of trial evidence: A “large double handful of hair,” supposedly ripped from Mrs. Ripley’s head.

• One wintry day, an old sweetheart from Pittsburgh showed up and unloaded her belongings at the remote cabin of James Hope near Northport. She moved in with him that day.

They lived in some kind of harmony for 10 years – but then something went sour.

How do we know that? Because the sweetheart was now on trial in Colville and charged with planting explosives under the cabin and setting them off, with the intention of killing Mr. Hope.

He escaped and she was charged with attempted murder.