100 years ago in Spokane: Trial in manslaughter case of slain widow delayed

Four hundred spectators arrived at the Spokane County Courthouse in the afternoon expecting to hear a verdict in the W.J. Van Skike manslaughter case.

However, they went home disappointed because the judge held the trial over until the next day as he prepared instructions for the jury.

Earlier in the day, the jury took a field trip to view the scene of the incident that killed Mrs. F.S. Kirkpatrick, a widow. The jury went to Division Street and Sprague Avenue, where Mrs. Kirkpatrick was knocked down while attempting to cross the street. Then they went on to Sprague and Perry Street, where she finally fell from beneath the car after being dragged 13 blocks.

From the immigration beat: The governor of California sent a letter to the governor of Washington asking him to join him in opposing a federal bill to grant citizenship to Japanese immigrants. Also, an “anti-alien” bill was introduced in the Washington State Legislature which would make it hard for Japanese residents to own land.

It was more evidence of a growing drive in Washington, California and other western states to ban or curtail Japanese immigration. This would culminate in the Immigration Act of 1924, which effectively ended Japanese immigration.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1915: America’s first official transcontinental telephone call took place as Alexander Graham Bell, who was in New York, spoke to his former assistant, Thomas Watson, who was in San Francisco, over a line set up by American Telephone & Telegraph.