100 years ago in Spokane, New Year’s Eve was a mostly sober affair

Spokane police reported that New Year’s Eve was quieter and more sober than usual.

Only 14 people were arrested for drunkenness.

The county’s dry squad made a “tour” of the outlying roadhouses, but didn’t find too many offenders. This was partly because they didn’t make it to the most notorious roadhouse – the Motor Inn on Moran Prairie – until 3 a.m.

“We had to break open the door because they wouldn’t let us in, but we found practically all the crowd had gone home, and we found no liquor, although we searched carefully,” said the sheriff.

They did arrest three men who had the misfortune of driving into the Motor Inn’s yard just as officers were leaving. All three were drunk. They spent the rest of the night sobering up in jail.

A “well-known farmer of Four Mile Prairie” made an even bigger mistake when the squad was leaving the scene of a “disorderly house” at Seven Mile. The farmer drove up in a Ford and – clearly failing to recognize the officers – asked them if they wanted some liquor.

“One of the boys spoke up in the affirmative and the (farmer) produced a bottle of moonshine and, asked if that was all, kindly dug up about a dozen bottles from the depths of his car,” said the sheriff.

He was being held in the county jail on $1,000 bond. The sheriff said this wasn’t the first time the farmer had been arrested on the same charge.

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1929: The United States and Canada reached agreement on joint action to preserve Niagara Falls.