100 years ago near Spokane: Did a rum-running pilot escape again? And what’s up with a Williams Lake perch that won’t die?

For the second time, sheriff’s deputies believed they had captured the infamous rum-running airplane. And for the second time, the pilot flew off scot-free.

In this instance, officers received a tip that a plane had landed in a field a half-mile north of the Sunset Highway. They rushed to the field and, yes, there was a plane sitting there.

Yet the plane contained no booze, nor did it contain a pilot. A youth who was guarding the plane said it had been forced to land because of a lack of oil, and some motorists had taken the pilot to buy some oil. Sure enough, the pilot soon returned with the oil.

The officers had no grounds for holding the pilot, so after interrogating him for an hour, they had no choice but to let him start the engine and fly away.

Later, however, they became convinced that something suspicious had occurred. Two cars had apparently been sitting at the field “ready to carry the pilot to town for ‘oil,’” which seemed a bit too convenient. They believed the cars actually belonged to the bootleggers, who were picking up their cargo.

From the fish beat: Attorney Harry Kinzel related a most remarkable fish story. He caught a 7-inch perch at Williams Lake and threw it in his creel. Hours later, after a long dusty car ride home, Kinzel got ready to clean it. The little perch came to life and darted around in the pail.

Mrs. Kinzel decided to put it in a tub and let it swim around. Then they went to bed.

The next morning they found the perch on the floor, apparently lifeless after jumping out of the tub.

“Remembering its previous performance,” they gave it one more chance and threw it back in the tub.

“The fish is now swimming gaily about at the Kinzel home,” reported the Spokane Daily Chronicle. “… (Kinzel) is thinking of training it to go into the garden patch to dig its own worms.”