100 years ago in Spokane: The city sought to move past its recent debauchery for New Year’s Eve

New Year’s Eve revelers were issued a warning by the Spokane Daily Chronicle: “Don’t Let Anyone Imagine That It’s Armistice Night.”

By that, the editors meant that there should be no repeat of the riotous and ribald scenes during the Armistice Day celebrations two months earlier.

That celebration devolved into a drunken street bacchanal.

Now, the police chief was vowing: “No drunkenness. No wild parties. No indecencies on the street.”

The Chronicle piously advised that “it is not necessary to break the law to have a good time.”

From the police beat: Spokane police noted that not a single murder was reported in the city limits during 1920.

“In comparison with other cities, Spokane has always ranked well in this respect, but this year, I believe, a new record has been established,” the police chief said.

The story was different outside the city limits. Several murders had taken place in the county, including the notorious Chicken House Murder, in the Cheney-Medical Lake area. In fact, crime was up in many categories in the county at large.

From the electricity beat: Electricity had become “the housewife’s best and most competent servant,” the Spokane Daily Chronicle noted.

During the previous year, 750,000 electric vacuum cleaners and 475,000 electric washing machines had been placed in American homes. The Chronicle noted that “Spokane is noted for the development of electrical energy.”