100 years ago in Spokane: Woman hurt in elevator accident

From our archives, 100 years ago

An elevator was a dangerous object in 1915, as Mrs. Edith Adams discovered at the American Hotel in Spokane.

Mrs. Adams, wife of the Casino Theater organist, was standing with one foot in the elevator while she awaited the return of the elevator operator. She was chatting with a friend and idly toying with the lever that operated the machine.

Apparently she pulled the lever toward her, and “the machine shot upward suddenly.” It pulled her up with it.

Somehow she was turned upside down and was dangling headfirst, with her feet at the top of the elevator door.

She screamed and the operator came running.

“She hung there, head downward, for an instant, while the car continued its ascent,” said the paper. “In some manner she was released and dropped to the basement, 18 feet, striking the cement floor.”

She was rushed to Sacred Heart Hospital, but had yet to regain consciousness.

From the contest beat: Miss Josephine Lein, 17, had not abandoned her quest to take possession of a Studebaker car she won in a contest at the Empress Theater. She hired an attorney and said, “I’m going to get that car yet.”

She also said she “cried all Saturday” after she was told she was not the winner after all.

Meanwhile, police were still looking for the contest manager, who was suspected of embezzling some of the money from the ticket-selling contest.