100 years ago in Spokane: A Halloween-appropriate name had emerged in the war on cigarettes

Spokane’s public schools launched a weeklong drive to discourage the smoking of “coffin nails” – that is, cigarettes.

Teachers were asked to use “persuasion and argument” on cigarette-smoking students during Anti-Cigarette Week.

“Lists of the smokers are to be compiled and information obtained as to where the users get their tobacco,” such as older brothers, parents, companions and tobacco dealers.

“Parents are to be warned by the teachers that they are breaking the law,” the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported.

“There is no doubt that the cigarette habit has greatly increased among the boys because of the war, and our war on the habit will be continued after the first week, until we get results,” the school superintendent said.

From the Halloween beat: Spokane chief of police W.J. Weir warned all pranksters that “we will condone no rough stuff in Spokane on Halloween night.”

“Riotously inclined young bloods had well keep this in mind, too, for their will be enough extra police out on that night to see that no property is destroyed and that no business houses, homes, office buildings or stores are marked up with soap, paint or tar,” he said.

From the drug beat: Spokane physician and surgeon Dr. C.O. Linder was sentenced to two months in jail for selling narcotics to a woman he knew was an addict. He had claimed during a federal trial that he was attempting only to relieve the woman’s suffering.