QMvnA
Adventurers’
*"The Death That Saved
By FLOYD GIBBONS
Famous Headline Hunter
ii IT ANGING by the neck,” as it’s spoken of in the law books,
X X is generally considered fatal. In fact, the only man I
ever heard of who was hanged by the neck to save his life is
Harry J. Perry of New York City. It just goes to show how a
difference in circumstance will change the whole picture for you.
For most people hanging is tough luck. But Harry is not only
alive and kicking, but a Distinguished Adventurer.
A lot of people out front are clamoring to know what Harry was hanged
for. Well, I’ll tell you—it was this way. Harry was hanged for being ac
commodating. It was about the middle of February, 1915, and the city of
Boston was just getting over a bad snowstorm. A freezing spell had fol
lowed the storm, turning the snow to ice. It collected on the streets and on
the housetops. Big icicles hung down from the roofs, threatening to fall
on the crowded sidewalks below. And before that cold snap was over,
there were icicles on Harry Perry's heart that threatened to fall down
and punch holes in the soles of his shoes.
Harry was living in Boston in those days, and working ir a
store on Boylston street. The store roof, like a lot of other roofs,
in the neighborhood, was fringed with icicles a foot long. They
bad to be cut down before they fell and hurt somebody, but v/hen
the foreman suggested it to the handymen, none of them wanted
to do it. “That slanted slate roof is coated with Ice,” the told
him, “and it’s so slippery that it would be suieide to try and get
out on it.”
The foreman was disgusted. He called the handymen a bunch of
sissies, and he went through the store telling the world that if they’d
give him just one man with nerve enough to try it, he'd go up there and
do it himself.
“So I decided to be the little tin hero,” says Harry, “and volunteered
for the job.”
Wished He Had Been Less Hasty in Taking Job.
Harry says he was young in those days. He didn’t know much about
roofs, and he didn't realize the danger until he got up there. Then he took
a look at the prospect and wished he hadn't been so hasty. He was eight
So tic Strung the Noose Around His Neck.
stories up, on the ridge of a roof that was steeply slanted. It fell away oh
both sides of him, a smooth, slippery sheet of ice, with nothing to get a
hold on, and nothing at the edge of the roof but an ice-filled gutter. That
was what he was going to have to stand on while he chopped away those
big, thick icicles.
The foreman had a rope with him, to lower Ilarry down to
the roof’s edge. He looked around for something to snub it on and
found nothing but the chimney. The chimney was square, with
sharp corners, and he knew the rope wouldn't slide around it very
easily, but there was nothing else in sight, so the chimney it
had to be. He looped the rope around It and began lowering
Harry toward the edge.
The rope was hard to maneuver. It stuck and Jammed against the
sharp corners of the chimney. It let Harry down in a series of short
jerks that scared the life out of him. The ice was so slippery that nearly
all Harry’s weight was on the rope—and that rope wasn’t a new one,
either. In fact, it was pretty old. Harry began to wonder if it wasn’t going
to break, and as he did, beads of perspiration began popping out on his
forehead—beads of perspiration that froze before Harry could wipe
them off. By the time he reached the edge of the roof he was trembling
like a leaf. But the worst was yet to come!
All at Once Things Began to Go Wrong.
The gutter was full of ice, and Harry couldn't depend on that rope
to hold him if he ever slipped over the edge. He chopped out a place to rest
his foot and, standing on the gutter, began to cut away icicles. Then
everything went wrong all at once. Suddenly he felt the gutter crack
under him and drew back. But no sooner had he shifted his weight
to the rope than he heard the foreman's warning cry: “Don't move,
Harry. Don’t move till we get another rope! THE EDGE OF THE CHIM
NEY’S ALMOST CUT THIS ONE THROUGH!”
Harry looked up at the foreman. "His face,” he says, "was
deathly white. 1 looked down at the ground, eight stories below.
Then I realized what a fix I was in. My senses were becoming par
alyzed, and I felt as if I couldn't support myself any longer. The
leg braced against the gutter began to get numb. The rotten
gutter itself would slip from under me at the least pressure. 1
could see the old rope now—badly frayed and holding by only a
few strands. I never felt so weak in my life. I wanted to move
and relieve my numb leg. but I didn't have the strength.
"I began to hear voices below me. A crowd had collected in the street.
I had been perspiring freely, and now my underwear felt as if it were
coated with ice. I felt some slight jars as the strands of the rope broke one
after another, and I could see the foreman, sick to his stomach now
and his face green. My nose began to bleed, and the blood froze as fast
as it came out. But at last the boys arrived with another rope. They made
a noose and slid it to me.”
But still the worst moment hadn’t arrived.
Too Frightened to Put Rope Around His Waist.
They yelled to Harry to put the rope around his waist, but he was too
weak and too frightened. If he moved that much, he knew, the old rope
and the gutter would break and he’d go hurtling to the street below So
he strung that noose AROUND HIS NECK. And then, with his two hands
he did his best to relieve the pressure while they hauled him, choking,
to the ridge.
Harry says no torture could ever bt worse than that trip up
the side of the roof. He says he’d rather be shot than go through it
again. They got him up safely, but he was more dead than alive
when he arrived. And volunteer for a.i> more heroic stunts?
Harry will be hanged if he does!
©—WNU Service.
Yak, Half Bison, Half Ox
The yak's shaggy coat of hair en
ables him to exist comfortably in
deep snow, and to survive blizzards
which would prove fatal to cattle.
The yak is half bison and half ox.
For centuries he has been the best
friend of the Tibetans and his wild
neighbors. He can carry heavy
burdens through high, treacherous
mountain passes, and subsist on
meager fare. The wild species,
confined to inaccessible areas of
the Tibetan plateau, sometimes
stands six feet tall at the shoulder.
The wild yak is solid black.
German Beakers
Beakers were popular in Ger
many during the Sixteenth. Seven
teenth and Eighteenth centuries.
They were used as guild cups, and
many are to be seen depicting
Scriptural and classical scenes in
silver relief. Tankards were also
made in great quantities, but
mostly of another product combined
with silver, such as serpentine,
stoneware, amber and ivory. The
fact that they were nearly always
decorated with silver borders
proved the very definite flare for
silver in the Reich.
SEENand HEARD
around the
NATIONAL CAPITAL!
By Carter Field
FAMOUS WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT j
Washington.—Despite all the in
dications that Pennsylvania will go
Dojnocratic as reported in a recent
dispatch, this writer believes Penn
sylvania’s 16 electoral votes will be
found in the Landon column on elec
tion day. This is his opinion despite
a belief that if the election were
held today the Keystone state would
go for Roosevelt.
One of the things on which the
Republicans are counting very
heavily is a campaign of education
among the miners. The point here is
that the Roosevelt administration is
committed so vigorously to a pro
gram of developing every possible
source of hydro-electric power.
Which means, of course, displace
ment of coal as a source of power,
and further restricting the ever de
creasing—as compared to popula
tion—consumption of coal.
Another is the fact that many
strong groups in the state, notably
the Pennsylvania Dutch, seem to be
turning slow|y against the admini
stration because they do not like the
political machine James A. Farley
has built up. They have always
hated Tammany, and they are be
ginning, so many Republican work
ers tell the writer, to fear that his
machine, on nation - wide lines,
holds a worse menace than even
the old Penrose-Vare machine of
the Republicans.
Whereas they cannot be afraid of
anything so impotent as the Repub
lican machine in Pennsylvania is
today.
Getting back to the coal miner
angle, the coal men in Pennsylvania
know more about what electrifica
tion does to their pay envelopes
than do miners in some other states.
They know that the Pennsylvania
railroad, from New York to Wash
ington, is electrified. They know that
much of this power comes from the
bij dams on the Susquehanna river.
Fear the Future
It is true that these dams were
not built by the Roosevelt admini
stration. They were built by pri
vate capital, long ago. But their
presence, and the displacement of
steam on this railroad, gives them
a very clear picture of what may
happen to them. It is a condition,
not just a theory.
Curiously enough, the doctrine
that the Republicans expect to
preach to them was laid down by
the very man against whom it will
be used—John L. Lewis, head of
the miners’ union, and now attempt
ing to organize the s*eel industry.
Back in March, 1934, when Lewis
was fighting in the NRA foi a code
which would do better by the mem
bers of his union, he had plenty to
say about the government’s going in
to the power business. He took up
TVA and Bouloer dam, the proposed
St. Lawrence seaway and the Loup
river, Nebraska, project. In each
case he insisted that no one was
even contending that these projects
were economically sound from the
power angle. He attacked the Loup
river project os a scheme en
gineered by a group of promoters,
and pushed by a man working on a
percentage fee basis.
Mr. Lewis said in part:
“My distinguished friend stated
what we all know to be true, that
power can be generated from coal
more cheaply per K. W. H. than t
can be through the construction of
hydro-electric plants. This is an es
tablished scientific fact. Yet for
whatever reason, certain branches
of tiie government are promoting
the construction and development
of vast hydro-electric projects
“Certainly such a policy is de
structive of the interests of the coal
industry. Certainly it will restrict
the productive capacity of the in
dustry. Certainly it will increase
unemployment. Certainly it is not a
sound policy from our viewpoint to
destroy permanent jobs in America
and substitute for them only an
equal number of temporary jobs.
The coal industry is a unit in think
ing it an unsound, uneconomic pol
icy during a period when our coun
try is struggling with the over
whelming and almost overpowering
question of trying to provide em
ployment for our wage-earning pop
ulation.”
The Republicans believe thay can
convince the miners that Lewis’
words then are still true, and that
even the Guffey bill is hardly worth
the price.
The Maine Election
The conspiracy of secrecy which
surrounds so many issues in this
campaign, applies also to the voting
in Maine recently.
\ctually the results should not
have been so pleasing to the Repub
licans, and should have been more
pleasing to the Democrats than their
statements indicated. There were
several points perfectly known to
the management of both organiza
tions which they are not discussing
in the public prints.
For instance, the fact that
negroes form a small part of the
Maine electorate.
The Democrats know this, of
course. They know that they are
counting on the switch of negroes in
large blocks from the Republican
to the Democratic parties to swing
almost every pivotal state. If they
are wrong about this, Governor Alf
M. Landon is elected—make no mis
take about that. If they are only
about half wrong, the election is
close. In fact, any substantial move
ment of the negro vote one way or
the other will throw the election.
For instance, Harlem has been
pretty thoroughly Tammanyized.
The Black Belt in Chicago, which
used to send Oscar de Priest to con
gress, now sends a Democratic ne
gro to the house. The big negro
wards in Philadelphia, where once
the Vares held sway, are now in
Democratic hands. The same holds
true of Pittsburgh, and Cleveland,
and Indianapolis. And in New Jer
sey.
So that the string of northeastern
states, virtually all of which Landon
must carry to have a chance to be
elected, depend on the vote of the
colored brother and his missus in
November, whether they bite the
hand that’s been giving them more
recognition than they have had un
der any President since William Mc
Kinley, or whether they are un
faithful to the memory of Abraham
Lincoln.
See Their Danger
The Republicans are not unmind
ful of their danger. They are doing
their utmost in a number of ways to
get the negroes back into the fold.
But the Democrats are overlooking
no bets either. Some remarkable
stories are leaking out as to offers
made to negroes known to be in
fluential with their race.
Nor is it as easy to play fast and
loose with the negro vote as people
who have never gone into the sub
ject imagine. In the first place, it
is unthinkable in handling the negro
vote to do something, say in New
York, and do precisely the opposite
in California, figuring that the ne
gro^ in New York will not know
about the California maneuvers, and
that the California colored voters
will be ignorant of what is being
done in New York.
Not only is there a curious free
masonry among the negroes, but
there is a curious wirelessing of
news across the country, as potent
and speedy as the war drums that
convey the word in African jungles.
Nine-tenths of the negroes in the
country know all about a certain
development in a remote town with
in a few days, though it may have
been virtually ignor'd by most of
the press of the country.
Then, too, there are the negro
newspapers, many of which have
a wide circulation—wide more in
the sense of territory covered than
in actual size of circulation. Most
white people have never seen one.
The average white person does not
even see the one printed in his own
city. Few Chicagoans with whom
this writer has talked even knew
there was one printed in their city,
which not only has a big circulation
there, but which the writer has seen
in the hands of negroes as far from
Chicago as Denver and Memphis.
Both parties, incidentally, have
been doing their best to cajole the
fifty odd key men in the negro news
paper publishing field.
Lodge to Win
Election of Henry Cabot Lodge,
Jr., to the United States senate to
occupy the seat held down until his
death by his grandfather, who led
the fight which kept the United
States out of the League of Nations,
seems assured by returns from the
Massachusetts primary.
When only half of the returns were
in Robert E. Greenwood, mayor of
Fitchburg, had piled up 50,000 votes,
running in the Democratic primary
against Governor James M. Curley.
It is a reasonable assumption, to
all familiar with the peculiarities of
Massachusetts politics, that nearly
every mart and woman who voted
for Greenwood will take a .*'alk, as
far as his party’s senatorial candi
date is concerned.
The interesting point is that no
body thought Greenwood had the
slightest chance of winning ihe sen
torial nomination, least of all Green
wood. Nor did he waste any of his
time during a very vigorous cam
paign trying to tell the Bay state
voters what a good senator he would
make if they would send him to
Washington. He devoted all hi. at
tention to telling them just what he
thought—to the best of his ability,
considering legal handicaps—of Jim
Curley.
So that a vote for Greenwood was
not really a vote for Greenwood—
it was a vote against Curley. And
the theory is that nobody who
thought so badly of Curlev as to
vote for Greenwood would think of
voting for Curley in November
against young Lodge.
The roots of the situation go back
a long way, but Greenwood entered
the Democratic senatorial primary
simply and solely to blast Curley,
and not with the slightest idea of
winning the fight. Greenwood, an
upstanding chap who has made a
good mayor o' Fitchburg, happens
to be the son-in-law of Senator
Marcus A. Coolidge. It ma; be re
called that, although always a Dem
ocrat, Mr. Coolidge neve, did any
thing more active in politics than
to contribute until 1930.
O Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service.
PINE TREE STATE
y’.y. y.\ • . ■£-*>’ • --...... - ... _ri ,_1
View on Monhegan Island
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington, D. C.—WNU Service.
THE Pine Tree state legally
got its name several years
before its neighbors. The
“Province of Maine” was
granted by the Council of New Eng
land to Sir Ferdinando Gorges and
Capt. John Mason in 1622, whereas
the date of the royal charter to the
Company of Massachusetts Bay was
March 4, 1629. So it happens that
Florida, Virginia, California, New
Mexico and Maine all antedate Mas
sachusetts as state names.
At first the Province of Maine ex
tended from the Merrimac river to
the Sagadahoc, now the Kennebec,
but on November 7, 1629, by an
amicable division, Captain Mason
received the territory between the
Merrimac and the Piscataqua
rivers and with the consent of the
council gave to his portion the
nr me of New Hampshire.
It was as the outpost of early
settlement that Maine offered a
refuge for those who sought more
religious freedom than could be
found in the Massachusetts Bay Col
ony.
The settlers in the 17th century
came largely from across the sea,
but the wave of emigration from
Massachusetts to the New Hamp
shire and Maine frontier began even
before the movement into Rhode
Island and Connecticut and these
contributions, like those of the cen
tury following, were of the adven
turous and independent spirits.
Trained in the French and Indian
wars to defend the frontier, the men
of Maine were quick to support the
common cause of independence. In
deed, a month before the Declara
tion of Independence, the town of
York sent assurances to the General
Court of Massachusetts that if Con
gress should declare the colonies
independent the inhabitants of York
would “engage with their Lives and
Fortunes to Support them in the
measure.”
Almost a Boundary War
As soon as independence from
England had been attained, the idea
naturally arose of regaining the an
cient privileges of the old province,
later the district, of Maine. Senti
ment for the civic change was slow
of growth, but separation, finally
asked by a decisive popular vote,
was granted by Congress in March,
1820.
U. S. Highway No. 1, entering
Maine by the Interstate Memorial
bridge from Portsmouth, New
Hampshire, at Kittery Point passes
the site of Fort McClary, erected by
Massachusetts early in the 18th cen
tury to enforce its rights to commer
cial use of the boundary river and to
protect its merchants from “un
reasonable duties” exacted by the
Government of New Hampshire. The
highway continues for 564 miles to
Fort Kent, near the northern tip of
Maine.
fort Kent takes its name from a
two-story blockhouse, a reminder of
Maine’s own private war scare of
1839, when the state called its militia
to arms and congress authorized the
President to raise 50,000 troops for
the defense of the country’s north
eastern boundary. Actual conflict
was avoided by Gen. Winfield Scott,
who came to Maine and established
headquarters in Augusta.
This boundary dispute had con
tinued ever since the peace negotia
tions following the Revolution. The
Treaty of 1783 adopted as the north
eastern boundary of the United
States the southern boundary of
Quebec and the western boundary of
Nova Scotia. As agreed upon before
the war, these two colonial boundar
ies had been, respectively, the
“High Lands which divide the Riv
ers that empty themselves into the
said River St. Lawrence from those
which fall into the Sea” (Atlantic
Ocean), and a line following the St.
Croix from its mouth to its source
and thence drawn due north to the
southern boundary of Quebec.
The preliminary negotiations had
been largely a debate as to rivers.
The Americans had at first contend
ed for the St John river in place
of the St. Croix, and with somewhat
similar spirit the British govern
ment had instructed its diplomatic
representatives to attempt to extend
Nova Scotia westward to the New
Hampshire line; if not, then to the
Kennebec, “or at the very least to
include Penobscot.”
Settled by Compromise
But the identity of the St. Croix
river was settled in 1793 by the old
map and plan of Champlain, which
was used to discover the ruins of the
buildings of the De Monts colony,
already covered by a forest of near
ly two centuries’ growth—evidence
so conclusive that the commission
ers were unanimous in the decision.
But argument continued, so the
King of the Netherlands was se
lected as the arbiter. His award was
in effect more of a recommended
compromise than an interpretation
of treaty language. Although his
line was in general nearer to the
United States claim than to the Brit
ish, the British government offered
to accept his decision, but the state
of Maine entered a protest and the
United States Senate accordingly re
fused its assent to the award.
A settlement of the dispute, which
had now lasted for 59 years, was
arranged by the Webster-Ashburton
treaty of 1842. This was much less
favorable to Maine than the spurned
award of the King of the Nether
lands. Acceptance of that award
would have saved it a strip of tim
berland about 5,500 square miles in
extent, as added territory for the
future Aroostook county, which,
however, is even now larger than
the states of Connecticut and Rhode
Island combined.
United States Highway No. 1
skirts the open sea at relatively few
places. From Ogunquit to Wells the
motorist may look out over a low
line of sand dunes facing the ocean.
A mile or two beyond Portland the
scattered islands of Casco Bay open
up many vistas of the Atlantic.
Again, in the Rockland-Camden re
gion, the road follows the shore, with
the broad Penobscot bay in full
view, but east of here only between
Hancock and Sullivan are there sat
isfactory views out to sea. So deeply
indented a coast does not accom
modate itself to a shore-line high
way.
Pleasing as is the panorama of
sunny farms, quiet villages, and
shady woods along the trunk high
ways, to see the best of the Maine
coast, detours are necessary. Of
these sight-seeing excursions to the
shore, some are over well-surfaced
highways, others along single-track,
primitive roads.
Detours to Coast Towns
One detour, over excellent roads,
leads through colonial York Village,
past bold Cape Neddick to lovely
Ogunquit, distinguished as an art
ists’ colony.
Another detour leads to Kenne
bunkport, the present literary capi
tal of Maine, where an 18th-century
village, the winding river, sheltered
beach, and wooded shores unite to
set the scene for an attractive sum
mer community and an inspiring
environment.
Beyond Cape Porpoise is Beach
wood and Biddeford Pool, the latter
once called Winter Harbor, because
here Richard Vines and his com
pany passed the winter of 1616.
Beachwood is a descriptive name
equally befitting many places along
the Maine coast: a short beach be
tween rocky points with marsh or
pond behind the barrier. On one side
of this pond beach grasses and’rock
shrubs grow, and extending inland
from the other shore is the oak and
pine forest.
The next detour is a short one to
popular Old Orchard Beach. Little
could early explorers foresee that
this long crescent of firm sand would
some day be a crowded pleasure re
sort, as well as a favored take-off
for trans-Atlantic airplane voyages.
Portland is modern Maine’s me
tropolis, a busy, thriving world port,
making the most of its fine harbor
and its geographic position a few
precious miles nearer. Europe than
most other American coast cities.
Yet it has never ceased to be “the
beautiful town” through whose
pleasant tree-lined streets Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow wandered
when a boy.
u Much Like Norway’s Fjords
East of Portland the coast line
perceptibly changes, the fjord char
acter becoming more marked, with
islands more numerous. All this is
explained by submergence of the
land. The present coast is now a
drowned region, wherein old valleys
of the former topography have be
come bays and sounds and reaches.
Long divides between valleys have
become peninsulas stretching far
out to sea, and old hilltops are the
islands of today.
Norway and Maine owe their mar
velous beauty, where land and sea
join, to similar geologic history, and
if, on those unrecorded voyages, the
Vikings actually sailed along the
Maine coast, the bold headlands and
the deep bays, stretching far back
into forested hills and mountains,
must have called to mind their
homeland. Similarly, the State-of
Mainer visiting southern Norway
recognizes there the same type of
rock-bound coast and islands he had
known in the bays of Maine.
Cars In U. S.
More than 70 per cent of the
world’s motor vehicles are owned
and operated in the United States,
where motor fuel is less than one
fourth as costly as in some foreign
countries.
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MY BANKER ADVISED ME TO
mm* »
-( I
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with acid indigestion.
Since TUMS have been *
.xsiSfcR* discovered.’*
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“Last Resource”
makes ugly itchy
PIMPLES
DISAPPEAR
IN 3 WEEKS
“Disagreeable surface pimples
and bright red patches broke out
on my face and forehead. They
itched and my appearance made
me miserable. I tried several
ointments to no avail. Then I pur
chased some Cuticura Soap and
Ointment and in three weeks my
complexion was clear and smooth
again.” (Signed) Miss S. Fortier,
959 Worcester Ave., Pasadena,
Cal.
Wonderful relief for pimples,
rashes, itching and burning of ec
zema and other skin and scalp
conditions of external origin when
you use Cuticura. Buy BOTH to
day. FREE samples by writing
“Cuticura” Dept. 33, Malden,
Mass.—Adv.
Followers
Great men gather satellites who
interpret them.
