100 years ago in Spokane: ‘Mayor of Chinatown’ announces no Chinese New Year celebration

Tai Gee, longtime “mayor of Chinatown,” declared that there would be no celebration of the Chinese New Year in Spokane.

“The Chinese New Year is just a memory to us,” he told a reporter. “We are Americanizing ourselves. We are celebrating the American New Year now.”

This was quite a change from previous decades, in which the sounds of fireworks and the aroma of incense filled the streets around Trent Alley.

There was probably another reason for the decline of the Chinese New Year celebrations. The Chinese population in Spokane had dwindled to only about 200, because of increasing immigration restrictions.

From the court beat: Two jurors in the Maurice Codd subornation of perjury trial were trading public accusations.

Carrie Lanphear alleged that fellow juror Cornell Branden came back from a hospital visit he was allowed to make to his wife and told the jury that “I think you ought to know what the public sentiment in this case is.” His wife told him that “it was just a case of spite work and should be thrown out of court.”

An angry Branden responded that Lanphear’s account was “absolutely false.” No such conversation with his wife ever took place, and a deputy was present the entire time.

He said that Lanphear demonstrated from the beginning that she was “set against the defendants, even before any evidence was introduced.”

“She was at no time willing to discuss the evidence or instructions of the court,” he said. “… The only thing she would discuss was whether any of the defendants were Catholics or Protestants.”