Jim Kershner’s This day in history
From our archives, 100 years ago
Spokane citizens publicly expressed their wishes for the new year, 1912: Dr. Frances Eastman Rose, “woman physician” – “More optimism among the people of Spokane. I would like to see the residents of our fair city always ready to say a good word for Spokane and quit talking hard times when there are no hard times.”
Max Carp, postal telegraph messenger boy – “A little money to go to the Coast and see the world would look good to me.”
Francis Bartlett, newsboy – “To sell the most papers is my wish.”
Blanche Carter, aka “Babe,” inmate of the city jail – “To be back home again with (my) mother and enjoy the same innocent freedom as in former years. … I am going to bring mama here and I am going to be good.”
From the cocaine beat: Speaking of being good, Edith A. Jamison – stage name Beatrice Fairfax – announced that she had kicked the cocaine habit for good.
She arrived at the Coeur d’Alene mining camps at age 18, became a popular singer of sentimental ballads, and then got hooked on cocaine prescribed for rheumatism. She said when she could “not get the stuff,” she felt she “would die.”
She checked herself into the state hospital at Orofino, Idaho, and cured herself.