Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Here’s an attention-grabbing headline: “Got Shot 48 Times Then Came to Spokane and Got Married.”

The story was about Thomas Sheppard, 49, a British-born man who spent a lifetime as a soldier of fortune in various Latin American revolutions and had the scars to prove it. He showed most of his scars to a reporter.

“When he begins to strip, he somehow reminds you of a telescopic view of the moon,” the reporter wrote.

His biggest adventures took place in Cuba, where he was a dynamite expert in the rebel cause. He claimed to have blown up a troop train with 740 Spanish soldiers on it.

He somehow made his way to Spokane, where he got married and got a job at a breakfast cereal factory.

He said all of his adventures had convinced him that “something must be wrong somewhere,” and he had turned into a socialist.

He planned to settle down in Spokane, despite the fact that Mexico currently offered “alluring opportunities for getting shot just now.”

From the theater beat: The owners of the Auditorium Theater, the city’s most ornate playhouse, announced that they planned to restore it to its former glory.

It was heavily damaged in a midnight fire two weeks earlier. However, the stage was undamaged and the main structure was sound. Work was to begin immediately.