The “society maids of Washington, D.C.,” had their sights set on a new target: the U.S. senator from Spokane, C.C. Dill.

Or, as the gossip columnists called him, “the boy bachelor of the Senate.”

He was being pursued by women outside of the capital, too.

Dill had become “the object of admiring glances from women all over the country – shy maidens, beautiful society maids, elderly women, yes, and a few widows.”

At least, that was the claim of a breathless story on the front page of the Spokane Daily Chronicle.

Dill admitted that he had received letters from “girls, grown women and widows from all parts of the United States.” But he had no interest in encouraging such talk.

“I’m nearly afraid to see newspaper men any more, because all they want to talk about are reports that I am to be married,” he said with a chuckle. “As for me marrying a Washington, D.C., girl, I guess every one knows that I am not a society man. Spokane is my home, and some of these Washington girls might not appreciate living here.”

From the mining beat: Miners in the Coeur d’Alene District claimed to have found an ore more valuable than silver: platinum.

A stockholder with the Cariboo Mining Co. said the company found commercial quantities of both platinum and iridium in the Cariboo mine and the Wilson Mutual mines. Assays showed values ranging from $116 per ton to $1,800 per ton.

They planned to begin work right away on an ore refinery.