100 years ago in Spokane: Being stuck in the snow was the least of a driver’s concerns after the identity of his roadside helper emerged

A Durant Six auto was stalled in heavy snow on Main Avenue when another motorist pulled up alongside in his Ford.

“Say, can you give me a tow?” the Durant driver asked.

The Ford driver replied that his car wasn’t up to it, but he agreed to send help from a nearby Main Avenue garage.

However, the Durant driver had been unlucky in his choice of good Samaritan.

The Ford driver was Officer Scotten of the city police “dry squad,” and he became suspicious of the Durant Six, partly because it was “heavily curtained.”

Scotten went to police headquarters instead of the garage and sent two detectives in the police “greyhound” (large police car).

When they arrived, the driver had skedaddled. The detectives searched the Durant Six and “found almost six cases of high-grade whisky.”

The car had Idaho plates, and police were searching for the driver.

From the weather beat: Cold and snow continued to raise havoc throughout the region. Almost all of the bus lines in and out of the city were shut down, including the Colville bus, which wasn’t even able to get out of Colville. The bus from Cheney arrived, but only after five hours of “smashing though heavy drifts.”