100 years ago in Spokane: Spokane Interstate Fair starts with heavy security and 300-pound butter statue

Thousands showed up for the first day of the Spokane Interstate Fair – and a squad of 45 “special police” were there to make sure everyone behaved.

The officer in charge, Inspector Lewis, came up with a slogan for all rowdy fairgoers: “Don’t start anything you can’t finish.”

He said he would be using his men the same way the military police operated in France during the war. They would be “exactly where you don’t expect them to be.”

Disturbers of the peace would be brought to the fair’s special police headquarters and either warned or ejected. Real criminals would be escorted to the city police station.

Gambling on games of chance was strictly forbidden, after a spate of problems in recent years.

That did not mean, however, that you couldn’t place a bet. Horse racing was one of the fair’s major attractions, and horses were being brought in from all over the West. Purses worth $20,000 were at stake.

The fair also had the usual agricultural contests and displays. Perhaps the most unusual was a life-size statue of T.S. Griffith, the fair president, molded entirely of 300 pounds of butter.

“I’m flattered, very much flattered,” said Griffith.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1864: Voters in Louisiana approved a new state constitution abolishing slavery.

1972: The Palestinian group Black September attacked the Israeli Olympic delegation at the Munich Games, killing 11 Israelis and a police officer. German forces killed five of the gunmen.