Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

Two railroad men were killed and four other people injured when a Great Northern passenger train collided head-on with a freight train at Thama, Idaho, 4 miles east of Priest River.

Apparently, the crew of the freight train mistook passenger train No. 2 for passenger train No. 44. After No. 2 went by, the freight train left its side-track and proceeded on the assumption that the track was clear.

The trains slammed into each other with such force that both locomotives were total wrecks. A baggage car also was destroyed. The injured were rushed to Spokane for treatment.

From the symphony beat: Spokane was anticipating the fulfillment of a local “music lover’s dream”: the city’s own symphony orchestra.

The newly organized Spokane orchestra held its first rehearsal at the Orpheum Theater, under the baton of director Leonardo Brill.

A music critic attended the rehearsal and was pleased to report that the orchestra played Mozart and Bizet with “skill, finish and fine enthusiasm.”

They were performing “without any remuneration whatever” for the time being, but hopes were high that the orchestra would prove “worthy of musicianly commendation and support.”