100 years ago in Spokane: Principal learns eighth-graders do know their English

From our archives, 100 years ago

The principal of the Garfield School decided to test an “old libel” – that eighth-graders no longer had a grasp of the fundamentals of English.

He decided to administer the “teacher’s examination in English” to the eighth-graders. This was the test to determine whether teachers were qualified to earn a teaching certificate.

The results: Every eighth-grader passed. Their average score was 82 percent, well above the passing grade.

The old libel, said the paper, “received a severe jolt.”

From the obituary beat: Ernest Sommer, 54, was a head waiter at the Davenport Hotel’s restaurant and had worked at Davenport’s restaurant for 20 years.

He was said to be the “longest in service of any of the restaurant employees.”

He was getting ready to board the Union Park Traction car (streetcar) when he was seized with a coughing spell. He collapsed in the snow and five minutes later he was dead. Witnesses said he had been running to the car so vigorously that “the exertion caused a hemorrhage.”

The manager of the restaurant said he was one of the “best liked and most trusted employees.”

Also on this date

(From the Associated Press)

1799: The first president of the United States, George Washington, died at his Mount Vernon, Virginia, home at age 67. … 1946: The United Nations General Assembly voted to establish the U.N.’s headquarters in New York.