100 years ago in Spokane: Demand strong for giant, dangerous fireworks

Sales of firecrackers, Roman candles, pinwheels and rockets were strong in Spokane – and one fireworks retailer said that even these were considered too tame by some purchasers.

He said most buyers wanted “to get hold of goods, which, if available, would provide the nation’s bomb artists with the munitions for a regular kill-fest.”

The Spokane Daily Chronicle noted that some enterprising boys had opened up their own fireworks stands and were enjoying a prosperous business.

From the streetcar beat: About 150 miles of Spokane’s streetcar lines and interurban lines were paralyzed because of a strike by electrical workers and shop craftsmen of the Spokane Traction Co. and the Inland Empire Railway.

The strike apparently took the company by surprise, because the company’s chief said “we will be fortunate if we can get the cars into the barns before the power lines become dead.”

From the drama beat: Spokane actor Allen Doone, a “well-known portrayer of Irish characters,” was in an Australian hospital after suffering from a nervous breakdown.

He was better known in Spokane under his real name, Eddie Allen. He left Spokane several years previously for Melbourne and Sydney, where he continued his acting career under the stage name Allen Doone.

His mother applied for a passport and was booked on a ship for Australia to tend to her son.