100 years ago in Spokane: A KKK lecture planned at a church was news to the pastor

The Rev. P.C. Curtis of Vancouver, Washington, a lecturer for the Ku Klux Klan and former “grand dragon,” was scheduled to deliver a talk at Spokane’s Central Methodist Church in the evening.

It was “thought to be the first public Ku Klux Klan lecture given in a Spokane church.”

The pastor of the church was taken by surprise when the Spokane Daily Chronicle informed him that a KKK lecture was coming to his church.

“I know there is to be some sort of a lecture here this evening, but I know nothing of what it is,” the pastor said .

The church secretary said he routinely rents the hall for all sorts of events, and he rented it to a local real estate man – who was organizing the lecture – “just as we rent it to others who make applications.”

The KKK was resurgent throughout the country in 1923, and Spokane had a local chapter that had attracted both supporters and opponents over the last year.

From the school beat: Spokane School Superintendent Orville Pratt reported that Spokane’s high schools had doubled in enrollment over the previous 10 years.

He also said that about 1,800 new students were entering the grammar (elementary) schools each fall.

From the lost-and-found file: Spokane’s tailors and laundry workers regaled a reporter with tales of the odd things that men carry around in their pockets.

One man carried around an elk’s tooth as a lucky charm. Another left an engagement ring in his pocket, until he apparently got down on one knee and realized he had left it in his other vest. He showed up at the laundry the next morning in a frantic state and retrieved the ring.

Most cleaners and tailors maintained a lost-and-found drawer. These were filled with matches, toothpicks, handkerchiefs and papers. Many of the paper were letters “that some wife had entrusted to her husband to mail.”