100 years ago in Spokane: Rum-running suspicions led a plane to flit from one landing field in town to another, but it turned out to be unnecessary

A wild game of leapfrog – involving a suspected rum-running plane – took place in the air and on the ground in Spokane.

Federal Prohibition agents suspected that the mysterious rum-running plane was about to land at the Russell landing field. When the plane glided in for a landing, the officers drove out “to greet it.”

But the pilot was having none of it. Before the agents got there, the pilot took off and headed for another Spokane landing field, the Parkwater field.

The dry squad raced over to Parkwater, but the pilot apparently saw them, so he turned around and headed back to the Russell field.

This game of tag was repeated several times. The pilot had a clear advantage, since he could cover the distance in one-third of the time.

Finally, the pilot landed and waited for the federal agents and the Spokane dry squad officers to show up. He greeted them with a huge grin.

“Something on your minds?” he asked them. “Look over the machine if you like.”

It was pilot Cecil Langdon, a well-known Spokane airman. The agents searched the plane and concluded that it carried no contraband.

The search for the notorious rum-running plane would continue.

From the charity beat: Another neighborhood mounted a vigorous protest at a proposal to put the Florence Crittenton Home for unwed mothers in their area.

“Everyone in the neighborhood, within two blocks of here, is against having the home,” said Thomas Dunn, a spokesman for homeowners in the Broadway-Cedar district. “People say they will move out if the home moves in.”

The Crittenton board had been having a difficult time finding a new location after a fire destroyed the former house. They believed they had finally secured a new spot when they completed negotiations to buy a brick apartment house at 707 N. Cedar. Now that plan was in jeopardy.