100 Years Ago Today in Spokane: Ice supply depleted as heat wave hits

Spokane was suffering through a 99-degree heat wave and the only source of relief – the ice wagon – was faltering.

The demand was vastly larger than the supply, and Ice Delivery Company said the company’s reserves had been depleted.

“For the first time in 15 years we are short of ice,” the company president said. “Last winter we stored as usual between 3,000 and 4,000 tons of artificial ice (as opposed to lake ice) in Spokane. This ice is used as a reserve during the summer months.”

Yet at 3 p.m., the ice wagons went “bone dry.”

Officials of the company hoped to move some 4,000 tons of ice from Blanchard, Idaho, to Spokane. This natural lake ice was sufficient to take care of Spokane’s needs, but the company was having trouble arranging for the necessary rail cars.

From the entertainment beat: The headlining vaudeville act at the Pantages Theater was titled “The Golden Bird – The Canary of Almost Human Intelligence.”

An accompanying story explained what audiences could expect. A violinist named Miss Lorrraine Evon shared the stage with a canary in a cage. Miss Lorraine played bird calls on the violin, “which the canary imitates, and as an assistant brings bird and cage into the audience, the bird sings to the accompaniment of the violin.”