100 years ago in Spokane: Young men charged after aiding girls’ escape from juvenile jail

Several young men were implicated in assisting two girls, Loretta Atchinson and Ella McNulty, in escaping from the county’s juvenile jail.

The girls “flirted with a couple of young men who passed (outside) the detention rooms.” The men later arranged to help the girls escape. They fled together to Lewiston where they met several other young men.

The girls were caught several days later in Hillyard. One of the girls tried to commit suicide when she was captured by swallowing iodine. She later told police that they had purchased iodine to “dye their faces so they might pass as Indians.”

Two of the men were charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

From the sledding beat: Bessie Archimbault, 12, was badly injured while sledding on 29th Avenue, near the eastern city limits.

Her sled slammed into an overturned sled and the steel runner ripped through her cheek and jaw.

She was being treated at home by a doctor who said she was in danger of developing lockjaw.

From the gambling beat: Seven Japanese men and 12 Chinese men were arrested in a gambling raid in Trent Alley.

They were taken to headquarters in the patrol wagon.

The Spokesman-Review called it “the largest load of human freight ever brought to the police station in the patrol wagon.”