100 years ago in Spokane: Social services secretary describes ‘suffering and need’

The people of Spokane had no idea about the amount of “suffering and need” going on all around them, said Miss Mary Malcolm, the secretary of the city’s social service work.

For instance, a day earlier, workers found an elderly woman “living alone in a shack by the river.”

“She was sick, uncared for and without food,” Malcolm said. “Emergency relief was sent, nursing care provided, and a permanent plan for her future was being made.”

Workers also found another woman, 90, “eating a meal of stale bread with two slices of uncooked bacon.”

“Care was given to two girls under 20, who had come to this city for work and advantages and had fallen by the wayside, in a strange city without friends,” she said.

Three children under 9 were found to have “infected throats due to disease.”

She said she planned to “acquaint the city at large with conditions we find, so that everybody may know and share in the work we are doing.”

From the escapee beat: Police were still on the hunt for four men who escaped from the Spokane County Jail.

Someone called in a tip that Clarence Phillipy was seen in Garden Springs, but no trace of him was found. Another tip came in that Edgar Mulligan was seen in Loon Lake. Police scoured the area in vain.

No further word was received about the whereabouts of Jerome Kirk and Sam Miller, who had been seen a day earlier near Lewiston and Clarkston.