100 years ago in Spokane: Bumper crop of potatoes helps ease wartime food squeeze

About 29 workers at the Northern Pacific railroad shop at Parkwater wanted to do something about wartime food shortages.

So they asked an NP official if they could use company grounds to plant potatoes. Permission was granted, and they planted potatoes in the spring.

Over recent weeks, they dug up a whopper of a harvest: 18 tons of excellent potatoes.

This good return was partly because one of the employees enlisted the advice of a top potato grower from Toppenish, Washington, who came to Spokane and showed the shop workers how to do the planting and cultivation. The potato fields covered about 4 acres of the railroad yards.

From the beauty beat: The beauty columnist for the Sunday magazine section divulged the “secret of beauty’s curves.”

She said that girls, after about age 16 or 18, should take steps to supplement nature.

“Massaging the body, especially the neck and chest, with olive oil or a good cold cream, aids greatly in flesh formation. My prescription for the increase of flesh is twofold. I counsel peace of mind, a gentle, daily massage and eating flesh-making foods.”

She recommended food cooked in lots of butter.