Jim Kershner’s this day in history

From our archives, 100 years ago

A probation officer arrived at a ranch near Spokane and found four girls, ages 4 to 12, slaving away on a hog farm while their mother was enjoying herself at a baseball game and their father was nowhere to be found.

As it turned out, the mother and father had divorced two years earlier. After that, the mother took the children to her brother’s farm and forced them to “earn their living.” The officer found the girls working with their legs scratched and their bare feet covered with bruises from rocks. The oldest was caring for “10 head of horses and driving a four-horse team to the harrow.”

The officer described their daily routine: “Arising at 5 a.m., the little girls helped care for the horses and when the day’s work was done at 6 p.m., the oldest girl would take off all the harness she could lift and then help care for the rest of the stock. The other three girls herded hogs.”

He said none of them had been in school for nine months. The oldest was “stoop-shouldered from the effects of her hard work.”

The county filed petitions to make the girls wards of the county.

From the amusement beat: About 2,500 people visited the city’s premier amusement park, Natatorium Park, on a glorious Sunday. 

They were drawn, in part, by a new attraction: a monkey cage, where two young monkeys had recently arrived.