100 years ago in Spokane: County fair, vaudeville wedding targeted by Sunday school convention

About 700 delegates were in Spokane to attend the Inland Empire Sunday School Convention, and they found plenty of things to condemn.

First, they protested the “double wedding ceremony performed as vaudeville program number” on the stage of the Hippodrome Theater. They called it a “desecration.”

“The commercialization of the sacred institute of marriage, such as was done Monday evening on a Spokane vaudeville stage, is a violation of Christian principles and of the teaching of our Bible schools,” said the convention’s executive secretary.

The delegates rose to their feet in solidarity over the issue.

Soon afterward, they rose to their feet again, to express their support of a boycott of the Spokane Interstate Fair, if “gambling and games of chance” were once again allowed to take place.

“Last year, many parents were compelled to keep their children off the fairgrounds because of the prevalence of gambling,” said the executive secretary.

From the prison beat: Jay Hough, recently convicted of forgery in a sensational fraud case, said goodbye to his wife and parents and departed for the state prison at Walla Walla.

“At least three years and eight months must pass before Jay Hough will again pass through the heavy door which will clang behind him at the penitentiary tonight,” said the Spokane Daily Chronicle.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1961: The first group of “Freedom Riders” left Washington, D.C., to challenge racial segregation on interstate buses and in bus terminals.