100 years ago in Spokane: A bobcat dashed across the heart of downtown — and then into a hotel room

A Spokane patrolman was at Howard and Riverside when he saw a startling sight: a large bobcat loping “leisurely across the main thoroughfare.”

He and another officer gave chase. To their considerable alarm, the bobcat ran into the Howard Hotel on Howard Street. Then it ran up three flights of stairs and into a room.

The officers burst into the room, shocking the room’s occupant, Oscar Olson, who began to berate them. At least, he did so until he saw the bobcat. Then Oscar “ducked his head down under the covers.”

The officers then used a snare to capture the animal.

They planned on taking it to the Manito Park Zoo, unless an owner claimed it as a pet – that is, a large, untamed pet.

From the coroner’s beat: The coroner’s office identified the man who died in a plunge from the Monroe Street bridge as Arthur Desarmo, 40, a former train brakeman.

His relatives reported that he had recently spent time in the sanitarium at Medical Lake because he “brooded” incessantly about religion.

They believed he jumped from the bridge out of fear that his “mind was failing and that he would have to go back to the hospital.”

Also on this date

(From onthisday.com)

1893: English author Beatrix Potter first writes the story of Peter Rabbit for a 5-year-old boy.

1957: Arkansas Gov. Orval Faubus, calls out National Guard to prevent nine black students from entering a Little Rock’s Central High School.