Jim Kershner’s This Day in History

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Spokesman-Review’s polo correspondent – yes, it had one – launched into a poetic rant on the eve of a big polo tournament here. The Boise and Cowley teams showed up, but the Portland team, the current holder of the Lane Cup, was nowhere to be found.

“Where, oh where, I ask in chorus with the multitude, is the team that galloped off with the Lane trophy last fall … ?” wrote Betty Graeme. “And the echo answers – well, what the echo answers is too profane to put into these columns. For, bless your heart, those gay young sportsmen from the national banks of the Willamette are perched high and dry upon a quibble, hugging their tattered victory to their hearts.”

Translation: The Portland team failed to show and bring the trophy, so event organizers had to go buy a new cup.

From the pioneer beat: The Spokane County Pioneer Society held its annual picnic at Natatorium Park. J.C. Lawrence, who had been in the region for 40 years, told a colorful story.

“In those early days, my wife and I headed for the Big Bend country in a wagon drawn by cayuses … On the road my wife mentioned a peculiar dog was running beside the wagon, and I looked and saw the peculiar dog was a bear.”

Then, from over the hill came a man on horseback with a pitchfork. He “killed the bear and we had bear meat for supper.” 

The bear slayer was R.A. Hutchinson, who went on to become a state senator.