100 years ago in Spokane: The area’s notorious roadhouses were the target of a new bill that aimed to quash immorality

State Senator Harve Phipps of Spokane introduced a bill in the state legislature aimed directly at the rowdy roadhouses and dance halls in Spokane County.

The bill would ban dancing after midnight and require roadhouses to close at that hour. The bill also included a number of fees and strict licensing provisions. It would give authorities the “power to revoke any license when either the liquor or narcotics laws are violated.”

Roadhouses and dance halls had been blamed for contributing to immorality among young people, and had been the target of a number of raids.

From the fight beat: The crowd at the Auditorium Theater was treated to a different kind of show: a fight between a drunken woman and a police officer.

It all began when the officer encountered a clearly inebriated couple walking on the downtown streets. The man and woman fled in different directions. The officer chased the woman into the lobby of the theater, where she “used fingers and heels to good advantage” and wrestled with the officer. He finally subdued her and held her down, while ticket buyers watched.

Meanwhile, a citizen chased the male half of the pair down an alley toward Wall Street. Officers were called to join the chase and soon captured the man, whose “face was bloody from contact with the pavement.”

Both man and woman were locked up in the drunk tank.