I
I
ADVENTURERS’ CLUB
HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES
OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELFI
“Death From Aloft”
Hello everybody:
I guess you'd call this a success story, because it’s
about a young lad of eighteen who made the grade. On the
other hand, you can call it an adventure story, too. Because
it’s one of those yarns where success and adventure are all
mixed up together. It’s from John R. Mills of New York City
and while I don’t claim it was the adventure that made a
man out of Jack Mills, I do think it convinced a lot of other
fellows that he was one.
Jack’s New Job Was Plenty Tough.
This story starts in the fall of 1927, when Jack was hired by a struc
tural iron working firm as a rivet jack. And Jack sums up that job of
his very neatly in two sentences. "My duties,” says he, "were to supply
four or five riveting gangs with rivets and with coal for their forges. The
duties of the riveting gangs were to supply skyscrapers for New York
city."
But it wasn't that easy. Structural iron work is one of the hardest
trades in the world to break in on. You’ve got to get accustomed to
walking like a cat along narrow steel girders only a few inches wide
and hundreds of feet above the ground. The only way to do that is to get
up there and walk those girders. There are no schools that teach a
man to keep his head in a tight or dangerous spot. You can’t acquire a
steeplejack's courage out of a book, or learn it in some safe place on
the ground.
“In the ironworkers’ trade,” Jack says, “you have to develop
those iron nerves you hear about. Even the bravest man Is nerv
ous at first, walking along those narrow beams with arms and
back loaded, and not even a semblance of a hand or foot grip to
catch hold of If you lose your balance. My debut in the business
was on a building that was an extra hazardous job because there
was a double shift of Ironworkers and that created a lot of con
fusion. The Ironworkers ran up a framework of steel that was far
in advance—eight stories at least—at all times, of the concrete
floorlayers who worked below.”
Jack was on the night shift, but somehow he couldn’t feel that he
was one of the gang. It wasn’t that he was afraid. It wasn't that he
didn't do his work. But somehow or other the veterans on the Job made
him feel like an outsider. To them he was just another rookie. They
weren't unfriendly to him—but they weren’t friendly either.
Things Went Haywire After Payday.
Jack didn't let that bother him. He went right on doing his work—
and then came a night when everything went haywire!
It was the night after payday and the men on the job. with hardly
an exception, had been celebrating their fat pay envelopes. A lot of that
stuff out of the little brown jug had been imbibed and those boys were
Like a flash Jack swung and caught him.
not quite up to par. The raising gang was having trouble holding onto
the great iron beams they were lifting, and the riveters were dropping
red hot rivets right and left. A couple of beams had been allowed to
fall and a couple of men had had narrow squeaks.
"A 4 by 12 beam missed me by Inches.” says Jack, "and with
the deafening chatter of innumerable riveting guns, the clang of
beams against beams and the banging of hammers on steel, the
scene was akin to pandemonium. It wa,s no place for a man
with a case of nerves, and I still had some, although a few weeks
of work and a few narrow escapes had hardened my nervous
system considerably. It seemed to me that the quietest of the
lot were my fellow apprentices, the rivet jacks.”
Jack was just a little bit nervous as he went about his work. To get
coal for the riveters’ forges he had to climb down through eight stories
of open steel work. He was on his way back to the top with a bag of
coal on his shoulder, and as he struggled up the ladder with his load he
began envying a couple other rivet jacks who had rigged up a make
shift hoist and were hauling their coal up by means of ropes.
Jack Sees Doom Dropping From Above.
At that moment Jack reached the beams of the third story below
the top, and stood waiting while two other ironworkers climbed up the
next ladder. Another ironworker was following him up the ladder he had
just left and Jack watched him coming for a moment, and then turned
his attention back to the rivet jacks who were hoisting bags of coal. He
had just turned his gaze in that direction when he saw the bag of coal
slip its noose and come hurtling toward him!
Jack was right under that descending bag. He dropped to a sitting
position and wrapped his legs around the beam. He knew he was going
to be hit, but with luck, he might keep his hold. Gripping the beam he
waited. Then—CRASH! The bag hit him on the shoulder, tore off his
shirt sleeve, and ripped a big patch of skin from his right arm!
He was numbed—bewildered. But his eye took in everything
that happened. At that moment the ironworker who had followed
him up the ladder had almost reached the top. His head was
about even with Jack’s waist. And the bag of coal, glancing off
Jack's shoulder, hit the other fellow square on the head!
Like a flash, Jack swung out and caught him with his injured arm.
And none too soon either. That fellow was out cold. His eyes were
closed and he had let go his hold on the ladder. He was a dead weight,
and Jack, hanging from the beam by one leg, now, was holding him with
the fingertips of a numb and bleeding arm.
Five Stories Aloft and Concrete Below!
Says Jack: “We were five stories above the nearest floor and that
was nice hard concrete. The weight was causing my left leg to slip,
and that leg was holding me on the beam. I grew dizzy from the strain
and began to feel sea-sick.”
Meanwhile, another ironworker, coming up the ladder, began
maneuvering himself into a position to straddle the injured man
and hold him. Rut all that took time. And when, at last, other
help arrived and many hands were assisting the man on the lad
der, Jack was so far gone with dizziness and fatigue that he had
to be helped himself before he could get back on the beam.
Both Jack and the other fellow were back on the job the following
night, and that same night, other ironworkers began to speak to Jack.
They didn't say much—just a remark or two about the weather. But it
was enough to let Jack know that he had made the grade.
Copyright.—WNU Service.
A Famous Coffee House
Across the square from the ca
thedral in Exeter, England, stands
Mol’s coffee house, favorite meeting
place of those gay adventurers of
Queen Elizabeth’s time — Drake.
Hawkins, Gilbert and Raleigh.
Test for Wool
To test woolen fabric: Boil it in a
solution of caustic soda. The wool
will dissolve into a jelly-like mass,
but any cotton that may be present
will remain intact
How Patent Leather Is Made
Patent leathers are made of a
leather that Is soft but not stretch
able. It must be solid and minus
all grease. Several coats of black
varnish are applied and the last
coat is baked on.
Prefers Simple Language
“I admires education.” said Un
cle Eben. “but I don’t believe a man
ought to say ‘assistance,’ when he
might get so much quicker action
out o’ just plain ‘help’/*
America Fights Fire Menace
I Each year, the fire demon
takes 10,000 American lives
and destroys $300,000,000
I in property. Of this, 7,000
fatalities and $100,000,000
damage is in homes.
During Fire Prevention week, most of the 25,000,000 homes
in America will be inspected for “fire susceptibility” by fire
men, 4-H clubs, rural scouts, state fire marshals and others.
They will look for such menaces as forgotten rubbish piles and
faulty heating plants. Many fires are caused by carelessness,
but the more important consideration is that most fires are
preventable. The bare truth is that America has one of the
highest per capita fire losses in the world. Every two minutes
of every hour, an American home catches fire.
Here are the greatest fire hazards in order of their impor
tance: (1) rubbish; (2) defective chimneys; (3) combustible
roofs; (4) defective heating equipment; (5) matches and
careless smoking; (6) gasoline and kerosene; (7) electrical
defects, and (8) hot ashes. U atch for these menaces in your
home and help keep down America's fire toll. Remember that
every 24 hours, 19 persons—half of whom are children—die
as a result of fires; burned to death, suffocated or asphyxiated!
WRONG
NUMBER
By ISABEL TOWNS
© McClure Newspaper Syndicate.
WNU Service.
Martha matson opened
the door marked “R. B.
King & Sons.” The door
was only partly marked.
Rectangles of gold leaf had been
plastered securely across it over
the outlines of the letters spell
ing "R. B. King & Sons." The man
who was doing the work had evi
dently heeded the call of a luncheon
j appetite and gone off duty.
Pushing the door open, Martha
entered what was evidently destined
to be the reception room of the
new offices. Furniture stood about
awkwardly where it didn’t belong.
Bulging filing cases played hide and
seek behind stuffed leather-covered
chairs. A big persian rug was
cramped uncomfortably against a
glass-topped mahogany table.
Martha looked anxiously about
the room, sighed with relief at sight
of the telephone switchboard com
pletely installed, looked at her
watch to make sure it was not quit?
twelve-thirty, and made her way
through the furniture to the far cor
I ner.
There she sat down before the
switchboard, pulled off her white
chamois gloves, pulled her small,
smart black hat more securely down
over her right eye, and relaxed.
Five minutes later a young man
poked his head around the outside
door, surveyed the clutter of furni
ture and looked annoyed. But when
he spotted Martha he grinned.
He took off his hat and deftly
flipped it to a place beside hers.
“Well, you’re here!” he said.
"Are you the telephone man? The
company said they’d send a man to
show me how to work this board.
I’m the new operator, and I’m just
raring to go!” Martha said this out
loud, in a charmingly musical crisp
voice.
To herself she said in a cross
voice, “Fresh piece! But I suppose
I’ve got to take it.”
"Ah-ha,” said the young man. “A
lady in distress. They’re my special
ties.” He hopped and pranced
across the room and leaned against
the board. “Where do we go from
here?”
“We get down to business, young
man,” said Martha. Her musical
crisp voice was a bit hard. “Show
me the secrets of this board and
hurry up. I’ve got to earn my liv
ing.”
The young man up-ended a pack
ing case and sat down beside Mar
tha.
"In 30 seconds I can tell you all I
know,” he said. “It’s simple, once
you’ve got the hang of it.”
He took one of the long rubber
plugs from its hole and gesticulated
it as he talked.
"You see, when that buzzer
buzzes you tune in and get Watkins
4-6763—or anything else you think
of. Only you first say, ‘R. B. King
speaking,’ if it’s from outside, and
if it’s from inside you say, if it’s
your boss, ‘Yes, sir. Just a min
ute.’ And if it’s an office boy, you
say, ‘Hey, kid, step on it. I haven’t
got all day to sit here and listen to
you!'”
Martha stiffened.
Her voice was icy as she said,
“Suppose we get to work. What
does that little red light mean?”
“Well, I know more than you do
about that. That means somebody’s
talking—some connection is up
somewhere. How about lunch?”
An iceberg enveloped Martha.
“I’ve no time for fooling.”
a m not ioonng. Here, fair lady,
are your gloves and your little dinky
handbag. Where did you get it’
Paris?”
“Really, I’ve got to get the hang
of this thing right away,” Martha
said crossly.
“I never can see what you carry
those little handbags for, anyway.
Our pockets are a lot better. Bet
you’ve got more in that silk thing
than I’ve got in all my pockets to
gether. Lipstick, mirror, two or
three hankies, some money, powder
doo-dabs, a couple of letters, and
maybe an evening dress. That’s
the way Betty stuffs hers.”
Martha showed exasperation, but
she smiled in spite of herself at the
young man beside her.
“Please help me. It’s awfully im
portant,” she said.
Her voice was softer. The young
man responded with immediate
helpfulness.
"Well, you see, you just un-plug
all of these things and then you
i poke them in all the holes you can
| find until the bozz stops and then
you knock off for the day and come
[ down to my waiting chariot and
j speed away to lunch.”
As he talked, the young man
■ pulled out all the plugs. The red
; light went out, and a loud raucous
buzzing started up. A buzzing that
could not be quieted. Martha and
the young man both tried plugging
in the different cords to the different
holes in the board before them. But
the buzzing went on.
“Why don’t you do something
about that noise?” Martha said
plaintively. “You’re losing my job
for me before it's begun.”
“Call me Peter,” said the young
man, as his hands got tangled with
Martha’s hands and the cords, "I
never tried any of these things be
fore. Are you really the telephone
girl? I bet that’s King himself buzz
j ing his head off. He said he was
j going to stay here all day. Why,
for heaven’s sake don’t you do
something about it if you’re so
smart?”
Martha giggled. “I never worked
one of them before, either. But I
had to have work. I’ve only got
money enough left for a month or
two—I came to New York to make
good, and I’m making bad. I don’t
want to go home and admit I’m a
flop, even in these depressed times. !
So someone I know knows Mr. King
and got me a chance at this job. |
And the telephone company said
they’d send their best man to dem
onstrate the board and I thought I
could pick it up, you know. I said
my name was Helen Hawkins.”
"Well, I’ll be darned,” said the
young man. "You’ve got a nerve, I
must say. Why didn’t you say you
meant it? I thought you were Doris
Stokes, friend of my sister. I was
going to pick her up here and take
her out to Scarsdale—that’s where
we live. I missed her at the steam
er. She telephoned Margie and so
did I and Margie arranged for us
both to meet here. And now we’ve
done it.”
As he spoke a very wrathful mid
dle aged man appeared at the inner
door to the destined reception room.
"Well, who in thunder is monkey
ing with that board? You the new
telephone girl? I was just ordering
my lunch sent up whqyi the line
went dead. Don’t you know any
thing?” He looked severely at Mar
tha.
Well, well, well, if it isn’t dad
himself," said the joyous young
man. "Dad, let me introduce you
to Miss Martha Matson. We’ve been
waiting here to see you and we
were just in thunder monkeying
with this board, as you so cleverly
put it, and now see what we’ve
done. Martha, this is my father,
Mr. R. B. King. I’m one of the
sons."
Martha, flushed with embarrass
ment, jumped to her feet and took
the firm warm hand that Mr. King
extended.
“I’m sorry, Miss Matson,” he
said, "You see, I’m just moving and
I expected a new telephone opera
tor. In the meantime, I had a
trunk connected up in my room
and was getting my own numbers.
Hope you’ll forgive me?" A gleam
of Peter’s joyousness showed in the
older eyes as he looked contritely
at Martha. She flushed rosily.
“Oh, but Mr. King—”
"Enough said, Martha,” said Pe
ter. “You see, Dad, Martha and
I—"
Again the outer door opened. A
charming young woman pushed her
way into the room. “I’m Doris
Stokes,” she said. “Betty King’s
friend just landed from Europe. She
told me to meet her brother Peter
here. My taxi got jammed in traffic.
And it’s my guess you’re Peter,”
she pointed a forefinger at the joy
ous young man, “and that you’re
Margie’s father. You both look ex
actly like her. You know we were
at school together all last winter in
Switzerland.”
Peter hooked Martha’s hand
through his arm. "Isn’t this great?”
he said, “You see, Miss Stokes,
Martha and I were waiting to meet
you and in the meantime we were
trying to tell Dad that—we’re going
to be married within a month.” Pe
ter looked gravely, appealingly, at
his father. He patted Martha’s hand
reassuringly. “Come on now, Dad,
and let’s make it a foursome for
lunch. Your connection’s down, and
I bet none of us knows how to fix
it up. What do you say?”
A couple of minutes later, as the
four walked down the hall to the
elevator, they met a hurrying
young man. “Bet that’s the switch
board man,” whispered Peter to
Martha.
Much of Energy of Sun
Radiates Out Into Space
Scientists figure that the sun gives
off enough energy constantly from
each square inch of its surface to
supply the equivalent of a 50-horse
power automobile motor. This fig
ures out to mean that the sun is
constantly tossing 50 followed by 21
ciphers horsepower into space, re
lates a writer in the Boston Globe.
Here and there, as the planets
wheel, they intercept a bit of it (the
earth receives 250,000,000,000,000
horsepower constantly), but most of
it simply radiates out into space,
where, so far as present knowledge
goes, it is lost forever.
The real mystery of the sun is,
however, where does the sun obtain
this energy? For it seems possible
that, despite the bulk of the star
(more than 1,300,000 times' that of
the earth) this constant radiation of
heat would have consumed much of
its substance.
This does not seem to be the case,
for astronomical calculations indi
cate that the sun is as large today
as it has been ever since the plan
ets were torn away from its heart
Old scientific laws held that while
matter could never be lost, energy
was constantly being reduced to a
lower degree and that in the end
the universe would be a frozen cin
der. New ideas, however, at least
indicate that energy may be con
stantly created as, for example, in
our sun where, it is suggested, the
supposed central heat of 36,000,000
degrees (ordinary thermometers) is
certain enough to cause atoms to be
have strangely.
If that is so, if energy is created
inside the sun, then whether or not
the surface temperature is 4,500 de
grees or 6,000 degrees, we have no
need to worry about the loss of our
source of life. It has shone now for
many millions of years and it seems
likely that it will shine on for at
least as much longer
Add Note of Color to
Your Dainty Linens
These bluebirds have a charm
all their own. Cross stitch them
in soft colors (shades of one color
or varied colors) on scarf, towels,
pillow cases, or cloths and enjoy
the pride of possession! Pattern
6032 contains a transfer pattern of
Pattern 6032
12 motifs ranging from 4% by 15
inches to 1 Vi by 1 Vi inches; illus
trations of stitches; materials re
quired; color schemes.
To obtain this pattern, send 15
cents in stamps or coins (coins
preferred) to The Sewing Circle,
Household Arts Dept., 259 W.
14th Street, New York, N. Y.
Please write your name, ad
dress and pattern number plainly.
f-—--—■—--/
HOUSEHOLD /
QUESTIONS L
Lengthen Life of Towels.—Ma
chine a piece of tape along each
side of your roller towels before
you use them.
• • •
A Bit Ahead.—Call the children
for their meals a little before
time so they have an opportunity
of washing their hands and faces
without holding up the dinner.
* * •
Hand Powder.—Hot hands can
be refreshed with a powder made
of two parts talcum powder mixed
with one part borax.
* * •
Stiff Curtains.—To stiffen net or
marquisette curtains take 5 cents’
worth of gum arabic, soak it in
three quarts of water overnight
and use instead of starch.
* * *
Sun Ruins Mirrors.—Place mir
rors in a position where the sun
will not shine on them for any
length of time. Heat causes the
quick-silver on the back of a mir
ror to crumble.
CONSTIPATED?
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QUICK RELIEF
FOR ACID
INDIGESTION
—
A Shortcoming
It is a great evil not to be abl«
to bear an evil.—Bion.
Help Them Cleanse the Blood
of Harmful Body Waste
Your kidneys are constantly filtering
waste matter from the blood stream. But
kidneys sometimes lag in their work—do
not act as Nature intended—fail to re
move impurities that, if retained, may
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body machinery.
Symptoms may be nagging backache,
persistent headache, attacks of dizziness,
getting up nights, swelling, puffinese
under the eyes—a feeling of nervous
anxiety and loss of pep and strength.
Other signs of kidney or bladder dis
order may be burning, scanty or too
frequent urination.
There should be no doubt that prompt
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THE CHEERFUL CHERUB
I love the d^ys op
cloud ‘t.nd rt.in
Uith everything m
mist h&dP-Kid.
When motor cs-rs Go
It
so to see.
them shid.
ivtc**"* /
• * *