100 years ago in the Inland Northwest: Two mine fires may have been arson, and frigid temperatures inspired a winning limerick

Did a “firebug” start the fire still smoldering at the Hercules Mine in Burke, Idaho?

Authorities weren’t certain yet, but they were chasing down clues that suggested an arsonist might have started both the Hercules fire and the deadly fire that claimed three lives at at the Morning Mine near Mullan a few weeks earlier.

A motive for such an arson spree remained unclear.

“So far as is known there has been no labor trouble in the Coeur d’Alene mines in recent months and no known dissatisfaction among the mine employees, Wallace officials reported today,” the Spokane Daily Chronicle wrote. “It is thought possible, however, that some members of the I.W.W. (Wobblies) might have secured employment in the mines, in spite of the rigid examination given all applicants for work in the properties.”

There was no actual evidence that the Wobblies were responsible.

From the Crittenton beat: The directors of the Florence Crittenton Home (for unwed mothers) bowed to neighborhood pressure and agreed to look for a different site for the institution.

The neighbors would have to reimburse the board for $2,000 for breaking the purchase contract, or the agreement was off.

From the limerick beat: The following poem about Spokane’s frigid weather was submitted to the Chronicle’s Limerick Contest:

“A native from Greenland came here,

To share our famed sunshiny cheer,

But the cold and the snow,

Compelled him to go,

Back home to get warm, so I hear.”