100 years in Spokane: Escaped bear cub from Manito Park Zoo eludes posse of trackers

From our archive, 100 years ago

The young bear who escaped from Manito Park Zoo led a posse of trackers and pack of dogs on a merry chase along Hangman Creek. So far the bear was emerging victorious.

Twice the bear hunters treed the bear, and each time the young bear raced down the tree and disappeared into the brush.

The bear hunters and dogs gave up the hunt at dark, “worn out by the day’s exertion, wet from snow and hungry from a fast extending since breakfast.” The bear was presumably tired and hungry as well, but that was only a guess. The bear was last seen scampering into the distance on Hangman Creek.

The hunt would resume the next morning.

From the medical beat: For a brief period on Sunday, Spokane “entertained a real leper, in the person of a Greek laborer.”

The paper did not learn, until days later, that this leprosy patient had been transported, via a sleeper compartment on a train, through Spokane on the way from Seattle to New York. Strict secrecy was enforced “because of the general fear of the disease.”

The state commissioner of public health accompanied the patient to Spokane, at which point another employee of the state board of health took over and stayed with the patient until New York. At New York, the man was put on a steamer for Greece.

The patient was supplied with “separate towels, bedding, wash basins and dishes” and was kept secluded from other passengers.