100 years ago in Spokane: Californian convention attendees frown on Washington’s booze ban

From our archives, 100 years ago

The Pacific Coast Advertising Men’s Association was holding its convention in Spokane, and some ad men from California showed exactly how they felt about holding their annual bash in a “dry” (liquor-free) state.

They posed atop several Spokane municipal water wagons, with a banner that read, “The Spokane Ad Club Put California on the Water Wagon.”

A second banner added, just for clarification, “California Doesn’t Like Water.”

From the accident beat: Giovanni Bonetta was working as a laborer on a county road crew near Mica. The crew had just set off a dynamite blast, which knocked a Washington Water Power electric line down across the worksite.

Bonetta, “apparently ignorant of the character of the wire,” walked up to the wire. Before the foreman could stop him, Bonetta took it in both hands to carry it away. The shock knocked him immediately to the ground.

He died instantly.

“The left hand was almost completely burned away and the right hand was badly burned,” said the story. “There were burns all over his body, every button leaving an imprint where it formed a contact with the current.”