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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

100 years ago in Spokane: Salesman with new storefront adopts ‘Buy gum, by gum!’ slogan

“Even if I am only an old shoestring peddler, I have plenty of friends, and they came to my assistance, so that I did not want for anything,” Wilson said. (SR archives)

“Dad” Wilson, who sold pencils, shoestrings, cigars and chewing gum from his wheelchair on Spokane streets, now had a new storefront to operate from during winter days, The Spokesman-Review reported.

The slogan on his new Division Street store read: “Buy gum, by gum!”

He had been ousted from his former storefront on Trent to make way for a garage. Dad said that he was unable to sell on the streets during the recent cold snap, but he had managed to stay comfortable.

“Even if I am only an old shoestring peddler, I have plenty of friends, and they came to my assistance, so that I did not want for anything.”

From the aviation beat: Elizabeth Paterson, 12, gave herself a Christmas present from her savings. She went on a “passage to cloud land.”

In other words, she bought herself an airplane trip.

Elizabeth was “an enthusiast regarding aviation,” and she went on a ride with Spokane aviator Foster Russell, operating out of the Symons-Russell air field.

Her father, a mine operator from Butte and Spokane, accompanied her on the flight.

She was said to be “delighted with her birdseye view of the city.”

From the motorcycle beat: The Harley-Davidson motorcycle company published an account of the “three greatest feats in hill climbing by motorcycle in 1919,” and two of those feats were in the Inland Northwest.

They were ascents of Mount Spokane and Steptoe Butte, made by Ray Pentecost.

The motorcyclist reported that “no two feet of the trail are straight and the grade is sharp” on Mount Spokane.