100 Years Ago at Newman Lake: Candy company president, daughter saved from drowning

Terrance Riley, president of Spokane’s Riley Candy Company, and his eldest daughter, Edna, were saved from drowning by the prompt action of the other bathers at Newman Lake.

Edna jumped from a landing, thinking the water shallow. She was not a good swimmer and found the water too deep. She called to her father for help before she sank beneath the surface.

The father jumped in, despite the fact that he was a nonswimmer.

He was able to bring Edna up to the surface, but then they both went under the surface.

He was able to come up to the surface and shout for help. Several swimmers on the other side of the dock responded and hauled both back to shore.

Riley said that if he had been calmer he would have called to the other swimmers immediately and not tried to rescue his daughter himself.

“I feel pretty shaky today,” he admitted.

From the civil rights beat: Professor Kelly Miller, described as a “Negro lecturer and dean of Howard University,” delivered a forceful denunciation of lynching during a talk at Spokane’s Calvary Baptist Church.

“Lynching is merely a manifestation of extreme lawlessness,” he said. “America is the only civilized country where lynching prevails. America must destroy lawlessness or lawlessness will destroy America.

“You cannot have one law for a rich man and one for a poor man, and you can’t have one for white and another for the Black.”

He added that too many Americans do not recognize the law “as set forth in our Constitution in the 14th and 15th amendments.”