100 years ago in Spokane: Rousing chant raises wartime spirit at the Davenport

An Australian who spent several months at the front taught Spokane some of his “songs and yells” at the Davenport Hotel.

Here’s the one that earned the biggest response:

“Back to your corner, Kaiser Bill,

Back to your corner, Bill, you’re ill,

The Yankee boys are coming and they know what they’re about,

Back to your corner, Bill, you’re out.”

The Spokane Daily Chronicle said that “probably the corridors of the big hotel have never echoed with more enthusiastic patriotism.”

The “yell leader” was Cyril J. Mee, who was in France with the YMCA and who spent his time “leading the Yankee boys there in songs and yells.”

He was one of the featured speakers at Spokane’s United War Work Council meeting.

Also from the rhyming beat: More than 400 slogans were entered in the Red Cross Shop’s slogan contest.

The winner was Miss Isabel Howe, who submitted this entry:

“Over the top, for the Red Cross Shop.”

The runner-up slogan was “Give well and we’ll sell.”