100 years ago in Spokane: Phone call from Maine relative takes 45 minutes to reach Inland Northwest

From our archive,

100 years ago

On the first day of 1917, Miss Grace Fisher, math teacher at Lewis and Clark High School, played a role in a technological miracle.

She received a phone call from her aunt in Lewiston, Maine – a distance of 3,460 miles. Miss Fisher said the voices in this long-distance phone call came through “as clearly as in the usual telephone conversation.”

It took nearly 45 minutes for the call to be put through, since it had to be routed through Boston, New York, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake City, Pocatello and Walla Walla.

The cost was unknown, but the paper noted a call to Boston would cost nearly $20 for three minutes.

From the bear beat: The hunt for the escaped Manito Park Zoo bear was abandoned, but the squabbling between two local bear-catchers was ratcheting up.

Arthur Loraine, a Spokane wild animal trainer, had nothing but scorn for bear-hunter Tom Hopper, who had failed to catch the bear. Loraine charged that Hopper had been “bamboozling the people of Washington” for 24 years. Loraine said he could teach Hopper plenty about how to catch bears, and that Hopper was apparently much better at “spieling” (bragging) than at bear-catching.

Then Loraine issued a challenge to Hopper. Loraine asked the Manito Park Zoo to release two bears and stage a contest to see who could catch them first.

“Before he (Hopper) is aware of what happened, they will be in my power,” Loraine said.

The city zoo foreman indicated, somewhat surprisingly, that he might be willing to preside over such a contest.