100 years ago today in Spokane: Opium smokers arrested

Spokane police arrested two women, 22 and 23, and a man, 44, for smoking opium in a room at the Ridpath Hotel.

Acting on a tip, detectives climbed the fire escape ladder and peeked into the room. They saw the three taking “drags” on a long-stemmed pipe on which a ball of “mud” was burning.

The detectives raided the room and found a large tin of opium, along with gambling paraphernalia.

From the tax beat: Meanwhile, tax investigators staged a different kind of raid, on the city’s dance halls.

As a result, investigators claimed that they collected $5,000 in delinquent taxes.

According to Chuck Whitehead, manager of one of the city’s most popular dance halls, it was all a misunderstanding.

Whitehead’s and the other dance halls had been diligently collecting and paying the tax on their male attendees. Yet by custom, they had always admitted girls and women for free and believed they did not have to collect or pay tax for them.

“The government agents informed us that the price we charge for male admission applies to all admissions, whether we charge or not,” Whitehead said. “So we were obliged to make up the difference.”

The dance hall proprietors also announced, not surprisingly, that from now on, both women and men would have to pay an admission fee.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1998: Internet services company Google filed for incorporation in California.

2006: “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, 44, died after a stingray’s barb pierced his chest.