Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A young husband told a heartbreaking tale when he showed up at Spokane’s Benevolent Order of Good Fellows social services bureau.

He said he and his young wife arrived 10 weeks ago from the East and he was unable to find work.

“I’ve tried and tried, but it’s no use,” he said. “There’s no work for me anywhere. I don’t mind being hungry myself, but my wife is young and not used to it. And then there’s goin’ to be another one of us soon.”

So he discovered that restaurants were discarding bits of food at their rear doors. 

“For days, we did not have anything to eat except what I got from the back doors of restaurants,” he said. “We would clean the stuff the best way we could and eat it. It was all we had.”

The couple were given food and other aid by the Good Fellows, “assuring their baby a good reception on Earth.”

The Good Fellows’ creed: “That there will be no such suffering in Spokane on Christmas Day.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1914: “Watch Your Step,” the first musical revue to feature a score composed entirely by Irving Berlin, opened in New York.

1941: The United States entered World War II as Congress declared war against Imperial Japan, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

1980: Rock star John Lennon was shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by an apparently deranged fan.