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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A Polish laborer named M. Namiski apparently had a wild night.

Police found him asleep “in a buggy on a North Side vacant lot.” He was quite thoroughly inebriated.

So officers took him to the city jail.

He woke up the next morning, bewildered by the fact that there were bars in his room and his “feet touched cold steel instead of a carpeted floor.”

The realization slowly dawned on him.

“I guess I’m in jail, all right,” he apparently told the jailer.

He pleaded for his release and offered the jailer and the gathered police officers a bargain.

If they would let him go home, he would play the accordion for them, at which he was quite proficient.

The accordion was produced from the office vault. Namiski proceeded to play several Polish national hymns and a few old standbys.

Apparently, the performance was more than satisfactory.

The jailer and officers sent him on his way.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1974: Deadly tornadoes began hitting wide parts of the South and Midwest before jumping across the border into Canada; within a 24-hour period, more than 300 fatalities resulted from what became known as the Super Outbreak.