From our archives, 100 years ago

A squad of boys, ages 12 to 14, scoured Spokane’s North Side and offered to do a spring cleaning of yards. The homeowners were pleased with the results – until they found out what the boys did with the rubbish.

They simply dumped it on neighboring lots. 

In fact, a great deal of it was dumped on the lot of U.S. Sen. Miles Poindexter, who was away in Washington, D.C.

His lot had been “selected, seemingly, as the official dump for most of the youngsters.” The caretaker later found an “immense pile of refuse” at the back.

Poindexter wasn’t the only victim. One chagrined homeowner paid the kids 50 cents to remove rubbish from her lot, only to find it “piled up in the alley and on other people’s property.”

“I made some inquiries and from what I learn, the boys cleaned up the neighborhood good and plenty,” said one homeowner. “They ‘trimmed’ most of the old folks in our part of town. They found victims all over the territory, from Division Street east to the river.”

From the exercise beat: Students at Cheney Normal School went on a walking-for-exercise spree. One group of boys walked the 17 miles from Cheney to Spokane in three hours and 41 minutes. A group of girls made the trip in four hours and 20 minutes, breaking the previous girls’ record by 10 minutes.