100 years ago in the Northwest: A guilt-wracked ‘yeggman’ drew and mailed a map showing where to find explosives he’d left near a business

The yeggman (safecracker) who blew open the safe of the Baird-Harper Lumber Co. near Libby, Montana, apparently had a conscience.

A week after the safe was blown open, owner William Harper received an anonymous letter with a Hillyard postmark.

The letter writer told him to look for and destroy a bottle of nitroglycerine hidden in the bushes near the company’s office.

“The letter contained a sketch showing the location of the bushes and bottle,” the Spokane Daily Chronicle reported. “A bottle containing a thick, glycerine-like substance was found by Mr. Harper.”

Authorities surmised that the letter was written by the yeggman, who feared the bottle “might be found by some children or adults, who might be seriously injured in handling it.”

From the accident beat: Price Miller, the daredevil parachutist and balloonist, took a turn for the worse in a Spokane hospital.

“The balloonist was not thought to be in critical shape until yesterday, when it was found necessary to amputate his left arm at the shoulder,” the Chronicle reported.

Thousands of fairgoers witnessed his accident when one of his parachutes opened too late to check his fall. He suffered fractures of his leg, arm and vertebrae.

An appeal was being made for to fund his medical costs.

From the military beat: Three members of the medical corps at Fort Wright in Spokane were headed to Japan to assist the sick and wounded in the aftermath of that country’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.