_r:
“Door of Death"
By FLOYD GIBBONS
Famous Headline Hunter
'TMME and again I’ve told you boys and girls yarns that
1 —well—sort of proved that adventures happen to
you most often, not when you go to some special place or
on some special sort of trip, but in familiar, workaday
places that you’re accustomed to visit every day of your
lives.
It’s a tale of subway adventure that we’re going to hear today—a
story told to me by Matthew Creegan of Jamaica. N. Y. Matt left
his home and went down into the Lexington avenue subway one day
in 1921—Tuesday. November 13. to be exact about it—and before he
got out of it, he had the most hair-raising experience his life has had to
offer, either before or since.
Matt started out to pay a visit to some friends of his who
lived on Staten Island. He went down to the gubway platform,
and, when the right train came along, he got in the first car. He
stayed on the train until it reached South Ferry, and then he
started to get off.
His Foot Was Caught in the Door.
Matt was the last passenger to get off that car. The door was
closing as he went through it. As he stepped onto the platform with
bis right foot, the door closed in on his left foot and held it tight.
It was the sort of accident that happens once in a million years.
You know how those subway doors are built and how they operate. The
train can’t start until every door is fully closed and automatically
locked in place. But in order to save people from being hurt by the
doors as they slide shut, they've put a big soft cushion covered by a
rubber ilap on the side of each one. That cushion has three or four
inches of play in it. That three or four inches was just enough to catch
a firm hold on Matt's foot, and shut and lock at the same time.
Matt twisted around and tried to pull his foot loose, hut it
wouldn’t come out. Then, suddenly, Matt's heart froze as a Jar
shook the whole train. IT WAS STARTING! The closed locked
doors had been the motorman's signal to go ahead!
Matt let out a yell. There was a guard standing between two cars
just twenty or thirty feet away, but he didn't hear. The train began to
pull out of the station. Matt looked around frantically for something
to grab hold of. If he could get a good grip on a post or a handle
of some sort, he might wrench his foot loose. He might hurt that foot
pretty badly, it's true. But even breaking it clean off would be better
than being dragged and taking a chance under the wheels of the car.
Dragged Along, Head Downwards.
But there was nothing to catch hold of. Matt fell to the platform
and was dragged along. The train moved on, picking up speed as it
went. Matt let out one last yell as the end of the platform came moving
up to meet him, but no one heard that yell, either. And then his body was
falling—over the platform’s edge—down toward the tracks. In a split
second he was HANGING HEAD DOWNWARD from that subway door,
while the train bowled along toward the next stution.
Matt is short of stature, and for the first time in his life he was glad
ot it, for his heud did not quite reach the tracks. Had he been just a
few inches taller, the top of his cranium, dragged over that concrete
floor studded with hard wooden railroad ties, would have been battered
to a pulp before the truin had gone half a block. As it was, that head of
Matt’s was in dunger, from the various obstacles and projections that
lined the side ot the track.
Matt remembers trying to hold himself tight up against the
side of the train to avoid those projections, as well as the
pillars that went flashing by. The train was going full speed now.
It was an express train, and Matt also remembers being glad the
accident had happened to him downtown, where the express trains
stopped at every station.
The next station was Bowling Green, for the train had swung around
the loop at South Ferry, and now was on its uptown trip. Would he still
be alive when he got there? Matt wondered about that.
Unconscious, But Saved.
Something caught Matt’s coat—ripped it from his back. A few
yards farther on, his vest went the same way. His shirt was being
torn to ribbons. The roar of the wheels—terrifyingly close to his
head—filled his heart with horror. That upside-down position was caus
ing the blood to rush to his head. He felt weak from the shock of it all.
Suddenly, HIS HEAD HIT SOMETHING. A great light Hashed before
Matt’s eyes—and then he was unconscious.
me train was slowing down now—though Matt didn’t know it. It
was rolling on into the Bowling Green station. If the guard opened the
door of the car, Matt’s foot would be released and he would fall to
the track. But the guard didn’t open the door. There were no pas
sengers waiting to get on up at that far end of the platform. Doors
of other cars opened and slid shut again. But the one that imprisoned
Matt’s foot remained closed.
The train was ready to roll on to the next station—and there’s
no telling what would have happened to Matt then—when a
watchman, standing on the platform, saw the foot thrust through
the door. He took a flashlight from his pocket and looked down
into the crack between the train and the platform. There was
Matt—DANGLING—SENSELESS.
The watchman notified the guard. The guard opened the door,
and Matt’s body fell to the track. The motorman blew the emergency
whistle, and some men working near the station came and dragged
Matt out. He woke up in the Broad Street hospital.
Matt pulled out of it all right—and if there’s one thing he’s thank
ful for it's that he’s a small enough man to fit in the space between a
subway door and the ground without dragging. The big guys can have
their six feet if they want it. “The bigger you are,” says Matt, “the
more things you knock your head against.”
D-WNU Service.
Isle of Man’s Home Kule
The Isle of Man has its own
unique form of home rule. N o
act of the British Parliament ap
plies to the island unless expressly
so stated in the law. The Court of
Tynwald, one of the oldest legisla
tive assemblies in the world, con
sists of a lieutenant-governor ap
pointed by the crown, and two
chambers, the council and the house
of keys. The twenty-four members
of the latter are elected by popular
vote, in which women share equal
rights with men. All measures must
pass both council and keys, and
receive approval from the sov
ereign.
Limes Traced to India
The lime is indigenous to India
and was probably introduced into
the Western hemisphere by Colum
bus on his second vojuige. Some
time later they were found growing
wild in the F'orida keys. In ‘The
Log of the Mayflower,” Azel Ames
states that they were brought to
Plymouth by the Pilgrims. Another
record states that George Washing
ton ordered a sloop captain bound
for the West Indies in 1776 to bring
back a barrel of limer, “if you find
them good and cheap.”
The Roman Empire
The Roman Empire at its great
est territorial extent from A. D. 98
to 117 covered the territory now in
cluded in the following countries:
England, Netherlands, Belgium.
France, Luxembourg. Switzerland.
Italy, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Bul
garia, Czechoslovakia, Liechten
stein, Monaco, Austria, Hungary.
Albania, Greece, Turkey, Syria,
Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, Italian Iibia,
Tunis, the hinterlands of Algeria
and Morocco, Spain, Portugal, and
all the islands dotting the Mediter
ranean sea, the Adriatic, the Ae
gean. the Ionian and the Black
seas.
General Grant's Dress
General Grant went in citizen’s
clothes to the Capitol when he was
sworn in as President. He was of
a practical mind in his dress, ex
cept that he often appeared in public
driving his own team, when he
might have been mistaken for an
ordinary horse jockey There was
that in his demeanor peculiar to the
greatness of the man—dignified sim
plicity. A dress suit was to him a
thing to be abhorred. Grant was at
his best at the table with his wife
and children.
The Plight of Spain.
Beverly hills, calif.
—In the bloody task of
utterly destroying herself
Spain cannot complain that
she lacked for hearty co-op
eration on the part of some
of her sister countries.
Openly or secretly, half of the
great European powers are contrib
j uting to the bloody
ruination, so that,
| when the finish.
1 comes, they’ll have
spoils or dubious
| prestige or both and
< that ill-fated land
will be a burying
ground and a deso
! lation.
A fellow gets to
wondering why this
or that government
chooses for an em
blem some noble Irvin 8. Cobb
creature when the
turkey buzzard or the grave-rob
bing hyena would be so appropri
ate.
Fierce winters and devastating
floods may be curing us here on
this side of the water, but at least
we have been spared the affliction
of having for our next-door neigh
bors certain nations.
• • 0
Kidnapers’ Ransoms.
IT’S all well enough to pass an
act making payment of ransom
to a kidnaper a criminal offense—as
though heartbroken parents would
hesitate to pay ransoms to get
their babies back, no matter what
the penalty for so doing might be!
And can you see any American jury
convicting those parents? The au
thor of the law is no doubt well-in
tentioned but there is another law,
called the law of human nature,
which most surely would defeat his
purposes.
By the way, a person who should
know what he’s talking about, tells
me that three out of every four
known kidnapers during recent
years have been ex-convicts with
records as repeated offenders.
So, instead of trying to penalize
agonized parents for obeying a na
tural instinct, how about a snappy
little law to curb certain parole
boards which seem to delight in
turning ’em out as fast as the courts
can clap ’em in?
• • *
Optimism De Luxe.
I LIKE the spirit of a gentleman
in New York who started dredg
ing operations in East river. He
set out to dig a minimum of $4,
800,000 in gold and silver from the
ooze, and to date has salvaged 96
cents, two rusty frying pans and a
penknife—and is still probing.
For gorgeous optimism I can
think of but one case to match this.
I was on the French Riviera one
summer. They’d been shifting the
railroad tracks along the Grand
Corniche. This left a disused tun
nel. So, week after week, a beard
ed gentleman sat at one mouth of
the empty bore with a sign over his
head reading: “This property for
sale.” When I left he was still
there, waiting for somebody who
was in the market for a second
hand tunnel.
• • •
South American Explorers.
OF RECENT years, those hardy
adventurers who set forth to
invade the last great unexplored
area, interior South America, seem
to follow a regular routine, to wit,
as follows:
First—They start off.
Second—They get lost.
Third—They are rescued.
But wouldn't it save wear and
tear and nervous strain if the rescue
expedition went on ahead so it could
get settled down in camp all nice
and comfortable and be waiting for
the explorers when they staggered
in, exhausted from toting all those
tons of material for future lec
ture tours? The modern discov
erer is gallant, but apparently has
no more sense of direction than an
egg-beater and seemingly could get
lost on top of a marble-top table.
Or possibly the tropic sun has an
addling eilect on the human brain.
Anyhow, since nearly always he
is in an intact state when res
cued, this would seem to indicate
fiat the head-hunters of the Ama
i zonian jungles are now getting
| fussy about the types of heads they
collect.
m m •
The Charms of Music.
ACCORDING to a medical pro
fessor in Pennsylvania, sam
ples of whisky, when subjected to
a musical sound treatment for sev
en hours, produce a liquor which
equals one that has been aged in
wood for at least four years. But
why get excited about this? I've
known certain brands of classical
music which, in one evening, have
| aged a grown man to a point where
he figures the present Christian era
! must be about over.
Only a few weeks ago, being soft
ened by the spirit of the approach
ing holidays, I suffered myself to be
lured to a Chopin recital and got
jammed in and couldn't escape
and finally staggered forth into the
night feeling that Methuselah had
little if anything on me.
IRVIN S. COBB.
©—WNU Service.
Time to Plan Sewing Program
By CHFRIE NICHOLAS
WHY not start your spring sew
at-home program now and
"avoid the rush?” Those who are
in a position to know declare that
women are turning back to the art
of sewing at home with an enthu
siasm such as has not been mani
fest for years. Make-it-yourself
clothes are not only a sure means
of self expression, these enthusiasts
say, but they offer the best answer
to being really well dressed on a
limited budget.
And there’s the new spring fab
rics! ’Nuff said! No further argu
ment is needed. So here’s taking
a look toward the new materials.
Such ravishing colors, subtle tex
tures and glorified patternings as
the spring prints, the cottons, the
linens, the piques, the gabardines,
the shantungs, the silks, the satins
and so on ad infinitum are flaunt
ing is enough to entice anyone into
bringing home rolls of yardage, and
it follows like the night the day that
you will eagerly and without delay
be joining the sewing-bee clan.
Of course when one starts in to
do spring sewing the really sensible
thing is to tackle the simplest gar
ments first, made of inexpensive
wash materials. So let’s betake
ourselves to the wash goods sec
tions and see what’s doing in the
way of pretty prints or "what have
they.” Never were sturdy cottons so
novel, so amusing and so irresist
ably likable. The best of it is, if
you ask for the right kind you can
get materials that are guaranteed
against shrinking and that’s some
thing not to be lightly considered.
The new cottons and linens and
other wash prints run the gamut
of design from sportsy little designs
for house, active sports and spec
tator wear to gorgeous multicolored
large florals that look handblocked,
for evening dresses. There is a set
of cunning classroom prints that are
delightful for school and home
wear. These prints are practical
as well as youthful. History, geog
raphy, algebra, even music print
supply motifs for these clever
prints. What could be more be
fitting to wear during study hours
and easier for the amateur seam
stress to begin with than a two
piece pajama outfit made of one of
these interesting prints such as we
are picturing to the left in the group
illustration. The perky classroom
print that fashions this attractive
two-piece is pre-shrunk, which
means that its snug neckband can
not grow tight, tighter, too tight
when pajamas go to wash.
A house coat of cotton so fine it
rustles like silk and washes without
a tremor because it is sanforized
shrunk, as in fact are the materials
in each of the garments pictured, is
shown to the right. An effective
light navy blue is its color with
white cord and buttons. Any girl
can make herself such a garment,
since it requires no close-fitting.
Merely cut carefully by the right
tailored pattern and take care to
give a neat finish so that the mak
ing will do credit to the lovely lus
trous material.
It is especially encouraging to
home-sewing enthusiasts to know
that smartly new fabrics that wash
perfectly yet look formal enough for
any type of wear have come into
their own in a big way. The dress
centered in the group can be very
easily made, especially after you
have mastered the making of the
pajama outfit and the house coat
as shown. This is a broad-shoul
dered frock on the popular shirt
waist dress order. It has crisp
youthful lines and contrasting col
or accents. Use swagger broad
cloth, which is one of the shantung
like new cottons now available in
all wash goods sections and this
frock will cost you next to nothing.
The original style is developed in
brown swagger broadcloth with belt,
vest and neck trimmings of the
same material in rust shade. Can
be sent to the laundry week after
week without loss of fit or style
through shrinkage.
© Western Newspaper Union.
BRAIDED JACKET
By CIIER1K NICHOLAS
This two-piece daytime dress is
of satin-back bemberg and acetate
crepe, a material you will love to
wear during the midseason and
coming months. It is simply but
very ertectively styled with all-over
soutache braid trim on the jacket.
The ascot and breast pocket hand
kerchief lend bright color accent.
NIGHTGOWN BIB IS
WELCOME PRESENT
By CHERIE NICHOLAS
A most original and welcome gift
is something that you make your
self, giving that personal touch that
means so much. A charming sug
gestion is a nightgown "bib” made
of dainty lace. It is so easy to slip
on for breakfasting or reading in
bed. and is that becoming you will
be wanting to make another one,
after your gift is duly sent, to keep
for your very own.
One we have seen is made of in
sertion lace gathered and joined
row-and-row to form a circle meas
uring not less than twelve inches
across. Satin ribbons were attached
at the top and tied around the neck.
There is great opportunity for orig
inality in making these “bibs” for
you can vary their shape, having
them round, square, in triangle
form or whatever strikes your fan
cy. You can use lace edgings, or
insertions or all-over lace and dec
orate it in your own way. Thus you
can express yourself to your friends
and know that ycu are selecting a
gift that is sure to delight any fern
inina heart.
Tiny Hat
A small skull cap made of black
satin has a wreathlike arrangement
of white lacquered wings across the
front. This is posed well off the
forehead so that the birds come
somewhere near the top of the head
Give Hogs Range
When Fattening
Animals Produce Meat of
Better Quality When
Not Crowded.
By H. W Taylor. Extension Swine Spe
cialist, North Carolina State
College.—WNU Service.
Contrary to popular belief, a
small, filthy, crowded pen is no
place to fatten hogs. Crowded and
filthy, the hogs cannot be as
healthy and sanitary as they should
to produce good, firm, wholesome
meat. Overfat hogs do not produce
the best pork.
Hogs will gain well and keep
clean if allowed a reasonable
amount of range and given all the
balanced ration they can eat, and
some exercise is needed to keep
them healthy.
Since it is important that pork
be produced as economically as is
reasonably possible, it is a good
practice to turn the hogs into a field
where they can glean food that has
been left from various crops.
Fattening hogs should have, in
addition to the field gleanings, all
the corn they can eat and a protein
supplement should be kept before
them at all times.
Fish meal or tankage, or a mix
ture containing one-half cottonseed
meal and one-half fish meal or
tankage is recommended as a good
protein supplement.
Along in the early winter, growers
should begin to think about their
spring farrows, and see that the
necessary equipment is available.
Now is a good time to build a
farrowing house. A plan for such
a house may be obtained from
county farm agents.
Finds Cost Varies in
the Production of Milk
The cost of producing milk varies
from month to month; it is highest
in winter months and lowest in sum
mer months, according to Dr. L.
C. Cunningham of the department
of agricultural economics at Cornell
university.
Based on yearly average costs,
he says, January and February are
the two months when costs are high
est, and June and July months
when they are lowest. During fall
months, the cost builds up toward
a winter high; during spring months
it tends to taper toward the sum
mer low.
At the same time, the farm price
of milk does not change correspond
ingly. More variation occurs in the
cost of producing milk than in the
price received at the farm. In gen
eral, he points out, the price of
milk does not fall so far below the
yearly average in the summer, nor
rise so high in the winter months.
If the yearly average cost is taken
as 100 per cent, the highest pro
ducing cost is represented by 128,
and the lowest by 54, whereas the
farm price of milk is represented
by a high of 115 and a low of 84.
Dr. Cunningham’s figures are
based on a study of 437 dairy farms
in four representative dairy sec
tions of New York state.
Good Storage
One of the most important factors
in good storage is maintaining the
temperature in which each fruit and
vegetable keeps best. Failure to
provide this temperature shortens
storage life- Proper amount of moist
ure in the air of storage rooms is
also essential. Other causes of spoil
age may have come from storage
diseases such as rots and molds.
Then there are varieties of fruit3
and vegetables which are naturally
poor keepers. For winter storage,
potatoes keep best in piles small
enough so that not more than three
feet can be measured from the cen
ter of the pile to the outside. Pota
toes need air, and they should be
free from loose dirt when placed in
storage. Moist air helps in prevent
ing potatoes from shrinking, espe
cially if the air temperature is some
what higher than that recommend
ed. Frequent sprinkling of the walls
in the storage room is beneficial.
Notes of the Farm
With the exception of two years
In the past 25, the farm value of the
United States potato crop was below
average wheh the total yield was
above average and the farm value
was higher when the crop was below
average in size.
• • •
Soy bean meal mixed with
powdered skim milk has been dis
covered by University of Minnesota
scientists to be a good pollen sub
stitute for bees.
• • •
The crop pest bindweed—or morn
ing glory—defies drouth because its
roots, that spread even as much as
twenty-five to thirty feet, store up
eo much food for hard times.
• • •
According to estimates, mastitis
and Bang’s disease cause an aver
age annual loss of $200 to every New
York state dairyman.
• • •
Queen bees may be shipped by
air mail. However, baby chicks are
barred, since they can not stand
the high altitudes.
• • •
Total slaughter of cattle and
calves in the United States is ex
pected to be smaller in 1937 than
for either of the preceding two
years.
Ifouseiioia %
# Ques/iohf
To remove paint from cotton
clothing soak the spot in a solu
tion made of equal parts of am
monia and turpentine. When spot
disappears wash garment in soap
suds.
* • •
Men’s patent leather shoes _
dancing pumps, evening shoes,
and so on—will last twice as long
if they are kept on trees and
rubbed with vaseline after use.
• * *
Tablecloths that are no longer
in use make good cot covers, bed
spreads, or curtains if they are
dyed to match the color scheme
of the room.
* * *
Two parts boiled linseed oil
mixed with one part turpentine
will make a good furniture polish.
♦ • •
When the teakettle becomes dis
colored inside, it can be bright
ened by boiling a clean oyster
shell in it.
* * •
When laundering sweaters o r
knitted blouses let dry on cloth
or bath towel placed on a flat
surface. No ironing is required.
♦ * *
A boiled custard poured over
peaches or bananas makes a deli
cious dessert.
Fairy Bread — Two cupfuls
flour, one dessertspoonful sugar,
one teaspoonful bicarbonate of
soda, two teaspoonfuls cream of
tartar, pinch of salt, one egg,
half cupful milk (or a little more).
Make into a nice light dough, and
bake as a loaf in a slow oven.
• • •
Leather book bindings can be
preserved by periodic treatments
with an equal mixture of castor
oil and paraffin.
* • •
Pie crusts will be flakier if a
tablespoon of cornstarch is added
to the flour used for each pie.
© Associated Newspapers.— WNli Service.
A Tangled Yarn
Everything in this world is a
tangled yarn; we taste nothing in
its purity; we do not remain two
moments in the same state. Our
affections, as well as our bodies,
are in a perpetual change.—Rous
seau.
I LUDEN’S
Menthol Cough Drops
1. Clear your head
2. Soothe your throat
3. Help build up
YOUR ALKALINE
RESERVE 5/
Home and Virtues
Home is the chief school of hu
man virtues.—Channing.
Don't Sleep
When Gas
Presses Heart
If you want to really GET RID OF
GAS and terrible bloating, don’t expect
to do It by Just doctoring your stomach
with harsn, Irritating alkalies and “gas
tablets.” Most GAS is lodged In the
stomach and upper intestine and is
due to old poisonous matter In the
constipated bowels that are loaded
with ill-causing bacteria.
If your constipation is of long stand
ing, enormous quantities of dangerous
bacteria accumulate. Then your di
gestion is upset. GAS often presses
! heart and lungs, making life miserable.
You can’t eat or sleep. Your head
aches. Your back aches. Your com
plexion is sallow and pimply. Your
! breath is foul. You are a sick, flcouchy,
wretched, unhappy person. YOUH
SYSTEM IS POISONED.
Thousands of sufferers have found in
Adlerika the quick, scientlfU way to
rid their systems of harmful bacteria.
Adlerika rids you of gas and cleans
foul poisons out of BOTH UPP'^ *n
lower bowels. Give your bowels a
REAL cleansing with Adlerika. Ge
rid of GAS. Adlerika does "ot or'P«
—is not habit forming. At all Leading
Druggists.
. —
your Nerves on Edge?
Mrs. Dollie Rowland of
223 No. Cox Ave., Joplin,
Mo., sard: "I suffered
from feminine weakness a
few years ago and my
whole system seemed to be
upset as a result — I wa*
‘on edge.' Many a time I
had to leave my work and
come home. I felt so weak
and miserable. After using
Dr Pierce* Favorite Prescription as a
tonic, I ate more, slept better, and my nerves
were calm.” Buy now of your druggist.
[the cheerful cherub
-- _
■ —
It’s fun to <30 to
rrvetinees
And sit in feirytand
end then
Come out end find
the noisy street
And see the
seme old
world ecein.
ty-YcA***
n.n
