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

From our archives, 100 years ago

Absinthe, the powerful French intoxicant, was banned from import at the beginning of 1912, but Spokane saloonkeepers said they still had a six-month supply.

The average Spokane bar sold only about three quarts of the poisonous stuff a year, although a few “cafes and grill rooms use as much as a quart a day.”

 One bartender said it was especially popular when the horse-racing meets were in session.

“It is a drink much used by people leading ‘fast’ lives and is supposed to possess properties which ‘knock’ hangover ‘jags,’ ” said the bartender.

Other saloonkeepers familiar with the effects of absinthe said they were worried about what would happen when supplies finally dried up.

An absinthe addict must have it “at any cost, involving money, morals or transgression of the law” and “its influence is stated to be greater than opium or any drug.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1896: Utah was admitted as the 45th state. … 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson outlined the goals of his “Great Society.” … 1974: President Richard M. Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee. … 2007: Nancy Pelosi was elected the first female speaker of the House.