100 years ago in Spokane: The furloughed local Prohibition chief got arrested for being ‘highly intoxicated’

S.S. Murphy, chief of Spokane’s federal Prohibition enforcement office, went out and got roaring drunk after he was laid off temporarily from his job.

Spokane police found him “highly intoxicated” downtown. When they brought him to headquarters, he gave his name as John Smith. But police recognized him as the region’s chief Prohibition agent and booked him into jail under his real name. They noted that he had been carrying his gun at the time.

Murphy, along with the other agents in the Prohibition office, had all been laid off that morning for a period of 40 days, because the federal government had run out of money to pay them. They were awaiting a new Congressional appropriation, which would not be forthcoming for at least six weeks.

From the weather beat: Torrential rains struck the region and caused the death of P.M. Glanville, who drowned in the flooded basement of his Grangeville, Idaho, drugstore.

A cloudburst descended on the town and caused water to run 4 feet deep down Main Street. Glanville’s basement filled with water so fast he could not escape.

The storm caused massive damage to businesses and homes in Grangeville and throughout the upper Clearwater country. Tribal members reported that the Clearwater River was the highest they had seen in 20 years.

On this day

(From Associated Press)

1915: The Lassen Peak volcano in Northern California exploded, devastating nearby areas but causing no deaths.