100 years ago in Spokane: A quick-thinking nurse saved a woman and her baby in a downtown hotel

A young woman was “desperately ill” in a downtown hotel room. She tried, unsuccessfully, to reach for the phone to call for help.

Hours later, hotel employees checked on her. She, and her newly born baby, were clinging to life in a dangerously cold room.

The visiting nurse from Spokane’s Social Services Bureau rushed to the room and took charge. She immediately warmed up mother and baby and administered medical aid.

“It was a hard struggle to save the life of the baby, but through the nurse, it was saved,” the secretary of the bureau said.

The bureau was also to obtain a layette and baby clothes for the new mother.

“It was only an incident of our daily work,” the secretary said. “But a life, perhaps two, were saved.”

From the transit beat: The Washington Water Power Co. president declared he would be willing to consolidate his company’s streetcar system with Spokane’s competing streetcar system, the Spokane Traction Co.

Both systems were in financial peril because of the proliferation of autos and buses. Consolidation had been floated as a solution to the city’s ongoing transit crisis, and this was the clearest indication that WWP might look favorably on the idea.

From the mental health beat: Anna L. Corbin, the widow of railroad tycoon D.C. Corbin, remained a patient at the Eastern Washington Hospital at Medical Lake.

Two appraisers were named to appraise her personal and property holdings, possibly as a precursor to liquidating them.

She had been declared insane and committed to the hospital after being charged with arson in a scheme to burn down her landmark home for the insurance money.