Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Helen Bush, a “comely” young wife, left her husband Ned on the Fourth of July after he beat her and threatened her.

She went to Spokane to live with her father. She filed for divorce, but Ned said he would behave and begged her to drop the suit. She did not.

Then one day Ned showed up at her father’s house and issued an ultimatum. He said she had 15 minutes to decide to return to him – or else.

Helen used those 15 minutes wisely. She raced down to the prosecutor’s office and got a warrant for his arrest, on a charge of threatening to kill.

From the social beat: A Manito Park-area matron gave a novel kind of lawn party – a kind of “burlesque” on the Olympic Games.

The games included a “hobble skirt race,” an egg race, a gooseberry guessing contest, and a “baby-guessing contest.”

The article did not include details on what, exactly, is involved in a baby-guessing contest.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1872: Britain enacted voting by secret ballot. … 1982: Guatemalan soldiers aided by members of civilian patrols stormed the highland village of Plan de Sanchez in search of leftist guerrillas, killing some 200 people. In July 2005, the government of Guatemala accepted responsibility for the massacre, and apologized.