100 years ago in Spokane: Editorial rails loudly against noise

The Spokane Chronicle’s editorial page went on a loud tirade against – noise.

Specifically, the editors decried the frequent blare of locomotive whistles and the daily screech of factory whistles.

“In an age that finds an alarm clock in every house, and a watch in every vest, why should locomotives whistle in the city or why should railway shops wake up everyone within a mile circle at 6 o’clock in the morning?”

Some Spokane factories insisted on sticking to the “out-of-date custom of sounding great blasts at intervals throughout the day, as if their employees did not have brains enough to read a dial and know when to start and when to stop.”

The editorial ended with this righteous blast: “The useless whistle and the useless bell are pests to the healthy and menaces to the sick. They should go.”

Perhaps one of the editors was feeling a little sleep-deprived.

From the Prohibition beat: One of the telephone booths in the Washington Drug Store, 345 W. Second Ave., had a secret door.

Customers could slide the panel open and, for $10, obtain a quart of illicit booze.

Police raided the store and found the secret panel and 50 gallons of hidden liquor.