100 years ago in Spokane: Halloween pranksters grease streetcar tracks, overturn outhouses

A “continuous string of Halloween complaints” flooded into Spokane police headquarters.

One of the most common — and most serious — offenses was “greasing car tracks.” Boys smeared grease on the streetcar tracks, which made it impossible for the cars to gain traction or to stop.

Two boys were discovered greasing the tracks at Fifth Avenue near Wall Street. They were booked into juvenile detention.

Streetcars were a familiar Halloween target. A “crowd of boys” was booked for “pulling trolleys on streetcars.”

Another familiar target — outhouses and outbuildings. A “gang of small boys, none more than 14 years old,” was brought in for overturning outbuildings and destroying property.

In one of the oddest pranks, a boy was brought in “carrying a large map from the Lewis and Clark High School building,” which he had apparently stolen.

The phones lit up around 11:30 p.m., mostly from “parents whose small sons had failed to return to their homes.” Most of these calls were transferred to the juvenile detention center, “where the missing youngsters were invariably found.”

The Spokane Daily Chronicle reported that most of the young miscreants were let go with a “severe lecture on the destruction of property.”