100 years ago in Spokane: A ‘French gliding plane’ was on the shopping list of Hutton Settlement’s founder

L.W. Hutton, Spokane mining man and philanthropist, had plans to purchase a “French gliding plane” and launch it in the Spokane Valley.

“Gliding is a wonderful advancement of science, and we are going to bring a glider here and experiment in this type of engineless flying,” Hutton said. “We are not going into this thing in a haphazard fashion, but want a glider that is practical and safe. Inasmuch as the French now have the record of more than eight hours of continuous flight without any motive power whatever, we are going to get a French glider.”

He said the lofty hills above his Hutton Settlement orphanage should prove ideal, since there were no “wires, fences or other obstructions” in the vicinity.

From the booze beat: A Spokane bootlegger named Al Champagne – yes, that was his real name – wriggled out of some serious liquor charges on a legal technicality.

The charges stemmed from a Christmas Day fracas, in which his wife, Marie Champagne, called police and told them to come to the house and remove all of the liquor. Dry squad agents showed up and were invited in by Mrs. Champagne. She showed officers her husband’s hidden cache of liquor, which they seized.

The problem was, the officers had no warrant.

His attorney argued, successfully, that his wife had no constitutional right to invite the officers into the home or to point out the hiding place of the liquor. He said that “a man has charge of community property under the law.”

The judge ruled that the seized liquor could not be used as evidence. Without evidence, the prosecutors decided that a trial would be useless, and moved to dismiss. The prosecutor left open the possibility that he would ask the State Supreme Court to rule on the issue.

The type of liquor involved in the case was, sadly, not champagne. It was moonshine whiskey.