“When the Cable Snapped'*
By FLOY!) GIBBONS
V/OU can have your wild rides on bucking bronchos, on
•l runaway trains, and on automobiles gone haywire, but
Warren Roop of Orange, N. J., will back an ordinary coal
barge against any of them. Maybe you never thought of a
coal barge ride as either fast or exciting. Neither did I. Rut
listen to Warren’s tale. There are times, it seems, when
those slow, easy-going barges can cut up and act nasty.
In 1913, Warren was captain of the barge, Victor, owned by the Pea
cock Coal company of Philadelphia. The Victor was a 10,000-ton ves
sel, practically new, and Warren was mighty proud of her. And maybe
that's the reason he stuck to her when many another man would have
quit the job the minute those November gales began whipping the river
into an inferno of water and foam.
The November blow was particularly bad In 1913. A three
day northeaster had turned the water around Philadelphia into
a boiling torrent. There were three barges tied up together and
the Victor was on the outside. The other two barges were
moored with steel rabies, but the Victor’s lines were of rope, and
they were wearing thin.
The Rope Cables Snapped Quickly.
Warren called the office and told them he’d have to have a steel
cable. "We've got none,” they told him. Warren went back to the
Victor and looked at the swollen river. Those rope cables wouldn’t
last long. Tbe thought had hardly entered his mind when the head
lines parted. The Victor's head swung away from the wharf.
"The stern lines snapped like so much macaroni,” soys Warren,
“and the Victor started on a perilous trip down the river, hog wild on
the rushing tide, and with four bridges ahead of her. There was ab
solutely nothing that could be done, for the barge was not power-driven.
I stood there helpless, while the driving rain beat into my face and the
storm seemed to increase in fury.
“I made my way to the bow, and clung desperately to the capstan.
Carried by the tide, the Victor was tearing along at a twenty-mile-an
hour clip. She was loaded with ten thousand tons of soft coal, and I
wondered what would happen if she struck one of those bridge abut
ments broadside.”
Warren wasn’t long in finding out. There came a sudden
shock—a thunderous, grinding roar, and the Victor shook from
stem to stern. She had struck the Pennsylvania Bridge. She
veered around and shot through the draw stern first. Warren
yelled to the bridge tender—thought he heard a faint reply. Then
he was off, whirling down the stream again.
The second bridge was only four city blocks away. Again the crash
—and again the Victor shivered as if she had been torpedoed. She heeled
over at a ten-degree angle and went racing through the second draw,
twisting round and round like an egg shell. And on she sped—sweep
ing under the third bridge—missing an abutment by a hair—heading for
the fourth and last bridge.
Barge Went Tearing Down the River.
"We swirled into the last bridge with a sickening shudder that I
thought would split the barge in two,” says Warren. "Then suddenly
1 saw a red and green light looming up ahead of me. The police boat!”
She took the Victor in tow and hauled her ashore. Warren threw a
line out. But the police boat hadn't gone ten minutes when the
lines snapped again—and again the Victor was tearing away down the
Schuylkill.
By now the wind was blowing a veritable hurrieijne. Warren had
to crawl along the deck to keep from being blown overboard. He
was making for the little cabin in the stern for he was numb with the
cold, and he thought a jigger of rum would warm him up. But Warren
never got to the cabin and the bottle he had stowed away there in a
closet. At that moment there came a terrific jar. The Victor shook
as it had never shaken before. Suddenly it keeled over on one side,
and Warren was hurled clear off the deck.
"1 felt myself flying through the air,” lie says. “Then 1
landed and my body struck the port scupper railing. Instinc
tively I grabbed for it. My hand missed it, hut my hand closed
upon a two-inch line fastened to the midships cleat. 1 bounced
from the railing, shot over the side, and there I swayed, now in
mid-air, now hurled into the angry water.”
And for a full fifteen minutes Warren hung there, dashed re
peatedly against the side of the barge. He tried to climb back up
that rope, but it was a slow, painful job. The barge was heading for
the mouth of the Schuylkill now—heading out into the Delaware. The
storm would be worse out there. Warren redoubled his effort to climb
that rope.
Terrific Climb for Life.
Hand over hand—one arm’s length at a time—fighting every inch of
the way! It was the toughest work Warren had ever done in his life.
But it was work or drown, so he kept on. “I was fully three-quarters of
the way up it,” he says, “but I knew my bruised body could stand
little more of that sort of punishment. I was breathless and worn.
I think there was a moment in there when I lost consciousness com
pletely. But if I did, 1 must have clung to the rope instinctively, for
I didn’t fall off.
“How I ever negotiated those few remaining feet to safety 1
will never know. What I accomplished after that must have been
purely automatic. But the next thing I knew I found myself on
the deck, looking over the side of the still lurching vessel.”
To this day. Warren doesn't know what gave the Victor that last
wallop. He says he can only guess that some other vessel rammed
her. It was quite a while later that the Victor was hurled against a
dock on the New Jersey side of the Delaware river and a patrolling
tug came up and stood by her all night to see that she didn't break away
again.
The Victor was leaking badly by that time, and would have gone
to the bottom if she'd been in mid-stream much longer. And Warren
agrees that you can have your bucking bronchos. For sheer excitement,
give him one of those big. sluggish coal barges in a storm.
C—WNU Service.
Barnacles
Young barnacles are odd looking,
very different in youth from the
adult barnacle familiar to the sailor.
And for a long time no one realized
that this curious little creature was
a young barnacle. It was named a
"nauplius.” It is only after the nau
plius attaches itself to a rock or
some board with its long feelers,
that it develops a double shell for
its protection. From time to time,
the new shell sections are added to
its "roof” until it generally has five
compartments. Below the shell hang
several pairs of long arm-like ap
pendages which wave currents of
water into the barnacle's mouth—
and in the water hundreds of tiny
creatures which are the barnacles’
regular menu. Barnacles are com
monest in warm seas, but there are
countless numbers of them on sticks
and stones in northern waters as
well
Crocodiles and Alligators
A crocodile can’t stick out its
tongue. It can only move it up
and down. People once thought
crocs were just big. lazy lizards,
but we know they are not even
closely related to lizards. Except
for alligators their nearest kin died
out millions of years ago, says a
writer in the Washington Post. The
chief difference between a croc and
alligator is that the latter's snout
is shaped like a shovel while the
former's resembles a trowel or
arrow head. Most crocs, unlike
alligators, are very vicious. Sea
crocs are invariably man-eaters.
So are African, or Nile crocs. There
is but one animal able to conquer
the African croc—the orang-utan.
This Samson of the jungle is
strong enough to hold a croc's
jaws open while he tears out its
tongue. Yet crocs do not hesitate
to attack orang-utans.
Silk Print for Your Easter Frock
Bv CHERIE NICHOLAS
L" ASHION foreiees as tremendous
* a vogue for prints as ere eye
hath witnessed. What with gay and
flowery, bursting-with-color silk
prints massing together in a scene
of riotous beauty, as they are at
the dawn of this new season, the
Easter style parade promises to be
a colorful pageant.
The beauty of the super-lovely
prints brought out this season tran
scends all that has gone before.
Some of them look as if nature it
seb had thrown clusters of flowers
on black or navy grounds and in
their own graceful way petals and
leaves had fluttered down in pretty
confusion. This tendency to depart
from the conventional adds very
much to the fascination of the new
prints.
One of the charms of a colorful
and chic flowery printed silk dress
or ensemble is that it breathes the
very breath of spring even if snows
may not yet have melteu out of
sight. Then, too, clad in a raptur
ou- gay print you are sure to look
lovely regardless of features, av
oirdupois or the color of your hair.
As to the practical side of the ques
tion a vivacious print has a most
fetching way of taking kindly to the
u ea of being worn under your fur
or your smart new spring cloth coat
which is something to think about,
seeing that Easter comes sc early
this year.
For a fashion “first" the demand
centers mostly about the dark
ground types with emphasis on wide
spaced effects. Huge floral patterns
both for daytime and evening in a
maze of vivid colors is the new note
for silk prints. There is also a
pronounced trend in favor of strik
ingly bold black and white effects.
Also enthusiasm is running high for
paisley and cashmere prints with
an oriental beauty that baffles de
scription. Very new too, and out
standing are the flower-striped silk
prints.
The high-style costume to the left
in the illustration is fashioned of
one of the very smart black crepes
printed in white with crown motif,
no doubt inspired by the coming
coronation. The modish square
shouldered black wool cape is lined
with the dress silk. The little black
straw pillbox has roses encrusted
in the crown with petals spattered
on the draped veil.
To the right, the print that fash
ions this model is black crepe
spaced with flowers in bright char
treuse yellow. Similar prints are
carried out in gorgeous multi-color.
The bodice and sleeves are draped
in accordance with latest style dic
tates. The skirt is sunburst-pleated.
The tiny cap that is worn far back
on the head surely is last word in
millinery.
The more widely spaced the
smarter for prints, which gives zest
to designers to play up the idea
with originality so that one flower
cluster will position at the very
most effective spot on the bodice
while another remote bouquet will
find its way to exactly the strategic
point it should to show off to best
advantage on the skirt. Note the
lcvely dress centered in the group.
Tht very fragrance of violets is
caught in this gray silk crepe frock
with huge bunches of violets scat
tered over the ground. A lovely
Easter corsage completes this vio
let symphony. It is really quite the
thing to wear flowers, artificial or
natural, matching the flowers in the
silk print. Green straw braid with
a cluster of violets makes the pert
hat and green suede gloves are
worn with it. If it's a cold Easter
wear this lovely gown under your
gray Persian lamb coat.
© Western Newspaper Union.
DUSTY-PINK WOOL
lly CHKRIK NICHOLAS
A pastel wool truck tor spring,
and you will be right up-to-the-mo
ment in style. Among the fascinat
ing colors there is no lovelier than
the new much-exploited di: sty-pi k.
The attractive two-piece dress pic
tured is made of a highly fashion
able dusty-pink tropical worsted. A1
lied with a multi-colored knit swag
ger coat the color scheme tunes in
delightsomely to a gladsome spring
c y. Jet buttons and a black patent
• -“stige of this
fashionable costume.
COTTON LACES IN
FAVOk FOR EVENING
By CHEKIE NICHOLAS
Cotton laces have been popular
for a couple of seasons past, but
most often these have been associ
ated with the sports and daytime
frocks for summertime, and in the
sturdy types of laces that suggest
fabrics. This season, however, they
are seen in great quantity and va
riety for evening, and are compet
ing in favoritism with the prints
ani sheer fabrics. These cotton
laces for evening are the sheer and
crisp types, and are delightfully
novel and varied in their patterns.
They usually follow simple classic
lines, not too formal in cut, and
are especially nice for young girls.
They are most effective when worn
over rustling taffeta slips, and this
of course makes them the more de
sirable to the debs and sub-debs.
Hemlines Focus Fashion’s
Spotlight on Smart Heels
There’s no longer any need for
women to depend on the chance
swish of a skirt to reveal the spark
ling heels on their evening shoes.
To make certain that heels get the
notice they deserve, French design
ers are sponsoring evening gowns
with skirts draped up a trifle at
the back.
This is in line with the trend for
bringing back views to the fore
front of style.
Prints for Children
The season’s prints have not over
looked the children. One stylist has
made a series of prints out of nurs
ery rhymes and story books.
Double-Duty Capes
Enter the double-duty shoulder
cape, which may be looped up
over the wearer’s head and used as
a hood.
'JhJmkd about
Streamlined Grandmothers.
SANTA MONICA, CALIF.—
All along I’ve been won
dering what has vanished
from the city landscape.
I'd grown reconciled to service
Etations where blacksmith shops
I used to be and a
beauty parlor where
i once the livery sta
ble spread its fasci
nating perfumes.
So it couldn’t be
that.
All of a sudden
it dawned on me.
Since coming here
I’ve seen mighty
few 1912 - model
grandmothers—bar
ring in the movies,
and then, with the
Irvin S. Cobb.
exception of dear
May Robson, they' had to wear
makeup.
We don’t so much mind the young
girl who has gone prematurely old
—we’re accustomed to her—but the
old woman who has gone prema
turely young, so young that she
seems to be advertising the ap
proach of second childhood by
dressing to match it—well, that’s
different.
So now I know what I miss. It’s
the old-fashioned lady who was
neither streamlined nor a four-col
or process.
Penalties of Old Age.
IF, MENTALLY or physically, or
both, a man of seventy has so
slowed down he no longer can func
tion usefully, what are we going to
do about Secretary of State Hull and
Secretary Roper, and Senator Glass
and Senator Norris, and both Cal
ifornia’s senators, and a sizable pro
portion of the outstanding member
ship of either branch of congress?
And, to avoid cluttering up the
words, so to speak, what disposition
should have been made, at seventy,
of Thomas A. Edison and John D.
Rockefeller, Sr., and Henry Ford
and Queen Victoria and Cardinal
Gibbons and Von Hindenburg and
Clemenceau and Professor Eliot and
Carrie Chapman Catt and Mark
Twain and Elihu Root and Melville
W. Fuller, just to mention a few
names that come to mind?
Going still further back, one gets
to thinking, among others of Henry
Clay and Ben Franklin and Glad
stone and Bismarck and Victor
Hugo and Alexander Humboldt.
Open Season on Bears.
NEW Brunswick is granting free
licenses for sportsmen to kill
bears this spring. I regard this as
an error. It reduces bears, which
are picturesque features of forest
life, and increases amateur gunnerr
barging through the wilderness plug
ging away at every living object
they see, including guides. A green
horn might miss a sitting union
depot—probably would—but he gar
ners him a guide nearly every time.
On all counts, the black bear
should have game protection. For
every shoat he steals, he eats thrice
his weight in grubs and ants and
bugs; and he’s a fine scavenger, for
he likes his dead meat high. If
he were a veteran member of a
Maryland Duck club, he couldn’t
like it any higher.
Even so, he has been preyed on
until, in parts of our north woods,
he’s practically extinct. Yet, next to
a Vermont Democrat, he’s prob
ably the most inoffensive mammal
found in New England.
• • •
Tyranny of the Soviets.
SEEPING through the Soviet em
bargo on free speech and free
press and even free thought, stories
came out that the five-year plan
shows signs of utter collapse and
also that, in their striving for ab
solute despotism, Stalin and his—
for the moment—intimate lieuten
! ants are preparing to “liquidate” by
execution or remove by a wholesale
campaign of exile all such of their
recent ruthless associates as might,
i through private ambitions, stand in
the way of this latest desperate
tyranny.
Of course, we hear all sorts of
tales about the real inside of the
Russian situation, some inspired by
hostile prejudice and some by sym
pathetic partisans.
• • •
Women's New Freedom.
EWEN in olden days, before they
j broke loose, women envied us
every masculine perquisite we had,
except the moustache cup and pos
sibly chewing tobacco. Since eman
cipation, seems like they’ve taken
over practically everything we ever
had.
The bars are crowded with wom
en, and the smoking rooms and the
barber shops and the gambling
clubs and the prize-fights and the
wrestling matches and the political
caucuses. If it weren’t for them, the
race-tracks and the night spots
would languish and the cocktail
mixers might get an occasional rest.
Mabye, as a distinguished scientist
now arises to proclaim, they could
have excelled us in our then ex
clusive fields, only before this they
didn’t get a chance to prove it.
IRVIN S. COBB
e Western Newspaper Union.
First Stirrings of Spring
'T'HE chic young miss above, cen
ter, says, ‘‘I make my own
clothes. I learned sewing from
Mother first, got a touch of it in
school, and a real exposure in
4-H activities. I choose this dress
for Spring because it looks like
Spring, and because it takes the
minimum of time and money. Puff
sleeves and princess lines give a
formal note if I wish to impress
the folks (which I often do) and
the peplum jacket is added for
frivolous reasons—when I want to
feel a bit sophisticated, and it
makes a sweet all - occasion
dress.”
A Practical Choice.
The Lady on the Left says, ‘‘I’m
practical. I choose patterns that
I can cut twice; then I have a
gingham gown to set me off in my
kitchen and an afternoon dress in
which to entertain the Maggie
Jiggs club. The all-of-a-piece yoke
and sleeves make me look years
younger, the shirred pockets give
the decorative note every dress
needs, and I can run it up in an
afternoon.”
Three-Purpose Pattern.
The Girl in the Oval has a far
away look in her eyes. She says
it’s because she wears glamorous
blouses like this one. She cuts her
pattern three times—no less—and
evolves a blouse in eggshell for
her velvet skirt; one in velveteen
for her tweeds, and the third in
metallic cloth for after-five activi
ties. “The skirt with its simple
well directed lines is equally well
suited to tweeds for sport, velvet
for dress and wool for business,”
says Madam.
The Patterns.
Pattern 1832 (above left) comes
in sizes 32 to 44. Size 34 requires
4% yards of 39 inch material.
Pattern 1263 (above center) is
designed in sizes 12 to 20 (30 to 40
bust). Size 14 requiress 4% yards
of 39 inch material for the dress
and 2Yi yards for the jacket—to
line it requires 2*4 yards of 35
inch material.
Pattern 1958 (above right) is
available in sizes 14 to 20 (32 to 46
bust). Size 16 requires 2% yards
for the blouse in 39 inch material
and 2 yards of 54 inch material
for the skirt.
New Pattern Book.
Send for the Barbara Bell
Spring and Summer Pattern
Book. Make yourself attractive,
j practical and becoming clothes,
selecting designs from the Bar
Foreign Words ^
and Phrases
Caetera desunt. (L.) The re
mainder is wanting.
Lingua Toscana in bocca Ro
mana. (It.) The Tuscan speech on
Roman lips; i. e., the most cor
rect Italian.
Similia similibus curantur. (L.)
Like things are cured by like.
Quo jure? (L.) By what right?
Au fait. (F.) Well informed;
master of; skilled.
En arriere. (F.) In the rear;
backward; behind.
Lares et penates. (L.) House
hold gods.
Ore rotundo. (L.) With full ut
terance.
Principiis obsta. (L.) Withstand
beginnings.
Sans gene. (F.) Without em
barrassment.
Tout au contraire. (F.) Quite
the contrary.
■ ■
bara Bell well-planned, easy-to
make patterns. Interesting and
exclusive fashions for little chil
dren and the difficult junior age;
slenderizing, well-cut patterns for
the mature figure; afternoon
dresses for the most particular
young women and matrons and
other patterns for special occa
sions are all to be found in the
Barbara Bell Pattern Book. Send
15 cents today for your copy.
Send your order to The Sewing
Circle Pattern Dept., Room 1020,
211 W. Wacker Dr., Chicago, 111
Price of patterns, 15 cents (ia
coins) each.
© Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service.
MY O'CEDAR
MOP KEEPS MY
FLOORS CLEAN
AND POLISHED
BEAUTIFULLY,
AND I INSIST
ON 0‘CEDAR
POLISH,TOO. I
COULDN’T KEEP
HOUSE WITHOUT
Difficult Word
One word is the secret of most
financial independence: No.
Don*t Irritate
Gas Bloating
If you want to really GET RID OF
GAS and terrible bloating, don't expect
to do it by Just doctoring your stom
ach with harsh, 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 diges
tion 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, grouchy,
wretched, unhappy person. YOUR
SYSTEM IS POISONED.
Thousands of sufferers have found in
Adlerika the quick, scientific way to
rid their systems of harmful bacteria.
Adlerika rids you of gas and cleans
foul poisons out of BOTH upper and
lower bowels. Give your bowels a
REAL cleansing with Adlerika, . Get
rid of GAS. Adlerika does not gripe
—is not habit forming. At all Leading
Druggists.
"Quotations"
Education to be valuable must be
primarily character education rather
than a mere accumulation of infor
mation.—Newton D Baker.
Democracy substitutes self-restraint
for external restraint. — Louis D.
Brandeis.
The manner in which the com
munity takes rare of its sick and in
capacitated is the gauge by which the
degree of civilization of a people
may be judged.—Fannie llurst.
In the long and dreary history of
war, no idea has yet been conquered
by force.—Cordell Hull.
Measured by the advance made in
other fields, radio in the last ten
years has lived a century. Perhaps
it may crowd a thousand years into
the next decade.—David Samoff.