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Show Floyd ADVENTURERS' CLUB M,H HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES ' OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF! Na " Hair-Raising Honeymoon 99 NOW this is an adventurer's column, devoted to hair-raising tales of danger and action. So just hold fast to your chairs while you hear of Abner Rabbino's honeymoon. This must be the first honeymoon that ever deserved to be classed with the first ascent of Mt. Everest, Lindbergh's flight to Paris, Chris Columbus' expedition to America and other adventures of note. Most people, when they get married, mar-ried, seem to think that trying to pay the bills is enough of an adventure for anybody. But Ab Rabbino is the sort of a guy who would find trouble in a million-dollar legacy. The old Jinx just rides around on his shoulder, and on rainy days it crawls inside his shirt to keep dry. Alongside of Ab, Jonah was a good-luck charm. And when Ab got married and started out on his wedding trip, the Jinx began showing off to impress the bride. , Ab lives in Brooklyn, N. Y. He met a girl in 1931, and married her on September 16, 1933. They sailed the next day on the liner Virginia, bound for California, on a six-week tour that a travel agency had mapped out for them, and a few days later they were in the Caribbean sea. It was a cool, breegy night, with a brisk wind blowing. Ab'a bride was sitting on deck, enjoying the salt spray that dashed against her face. Ab didn't like the spray. He stepped Into the lounge and was about to settle himself into a comfortable chair when BAM! something hit the ship and sent it ever at a 32-degree 32-degree angle. A hurricane! Shrieks Fill Air as Lights Go Out. Passengers, pianos, furniture all were catapulted to one side of the lounge. Lights went out, and shrieks filled the room. Ab picked himself him-self up from a mixture of chairs, desks, potted palms, and squirming people, and ran to the deck where he had left his wife. She wasn't there! Nor was there any other living thing on that storm-swept deck. It was impossible to stand much less walk on the spot where he had last seen her. Ab was frantic. He hoped his wife of a few days was still alive but at the same time be was forced to doubt it. Water began to pour through the ship In a veritable Niagara. The next thing be knew be was down in the doorway, fighting for his own Passengers, pianos, furniture all were catapulted to one side of the lounge. life bracing his feet against the door posts to keep from being washed away. Then, suddenly, Uie lights went on, and Ab saw his wife, wedged in another doorway, held by two ships officers. They had taken her inside Just a moment before the storm struck! That was only the beginning of it. I could tell you more about that hurricane, but this yarn isn't about a storm. It's about a honeymoon. Ab says they'd seen the picture "Cavalcade" a few weeks before, and they felt like the two lovers on the Titanic must have felt when the ship struck an iceberg. Before it was over, one man was killed, one sailor lost an arm, and 186 others were injured. But in the end they got through it the same storm which, two days later, destroyed the city of Tampico, Mexico. Earthquake Aids Exciting Honeymoon. Finally, the ship reached Los Angeles. Ab and his wife were going to stay there a week, and they settled down to a quiet time. Thank the Lord they didn't have hurricanes on the West coast They found a hotel, went out to see the sights, spent a glorious day, and retired about midnight, happily exhausted from the strenuous time they'd had. They were asleep for about one hour, when Ab felt himself being tossed bodily from the bed. He landed heavily on the floor, scrambled to his feet, and switched on the light. The chandelier was swinging to and fro like a pendulum. An earthquake! Ab looked at his wife. She was still in bed sound asleep. How she could sleep through that quake is still a mystery to Ab. He shook her told her to get np and get dressed that they were in an earthquake. She replied, sleepily, that she hadn't been so tired In months, and she didn't care what they were in. Ab called the operator and asked her what to expect She told him the quake was pretty bad, and he could expect three more shocks. So Ab sat up all night in terror while the earth heaved and rumbled. Finally, about six a. m. the world gave a final weak convulsion and it was all over. Ab had planned a week's stay at Colorado Springs, and as they left Los Angeles a week later, he remarked that he wouldn't be at all surprised sur-prised if the Colorado river overflowed. Well, it could have, at that but it wasn't exactly what happened. Travel Agency Lets Ab Down With Thud. Ab and bis bride found Colorado Springs about as pleasant a place as they'd ever seen in their lives. Pike's peak reared its huge bulk high above them. The hotel was comfortable. The golf course was good. The sun shone all the time. They passed a delightful week. Ab, with his supply of money running low, and just enough to pay his way back to New York, was ready to go home. Ha began to think he had shaken the Jinx at last, when, at the end of their stay, he stopped at the cashier's window to pay bis bill. He didn't need money for that. The travel agency had given him vouchers that would take care of aH hotel bills. lie got out the proper voucher and handed it to the cashier. The man took it and told him to wait a minute as he had something to check over. A few minutes later, the fellow was back again. "I'm sorry," he said, putting Ab's voucher back on the counter. "I can't accept this. You see the agency went bankrupt yesterday." No the Colorado river didn't overflow. But Ab would have been a lot less embarrassed if it had. "And I" he says, "am the guy who was told by his elders that marriage was the beginning of a quiet, settled type of life!" (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) |