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Show all ales As told to: ELMO FRANK E. d SCOTT j HAGAN J WATSON ! The Good Ship "Wobble" THE first stories about the good ship "Woblile" were written by Frank Ward O'Malley and printed in the New York Sun, but other newspaper men have added details to Its history. It was "O'Malley of the Sun," however, who first interviewed inter-viewed Its master, Capt. Heinle Hassenpfeffer, and discovered that he wasn't quite sane. Captain j Heinie had been a second story man j In New York. When lie sought new fields for his talents In Africa and found that the houses there were only one story high, the disappointment disappoint-ment unbalanced his mind. The "Wobble" was unbalanced j also. It had only one paddle-wheel, and when it started out on a voy- j age with its cargo of subways and artesian wells, it just steamed around and around in a circle. To correct this defect Captain Ileinie junked the engine and paddle-wheel, installed masts and sails and set out across the Atlantic. Four and a half days out, the ship ran into what seemed to be a dense black cloud. But the captain soon 1 found that It was a flock of mos- quitoes. By the time the "Wobble" i had passed through them, the In- j sects had eaten off every scrap of sail and tarred rope from the ship. For a month the ship drifted with the tides. Again it ran Into a cloud of mosquitoes. By a queer coincidence it was the very same flock that had stripped the . ship. Captain Heinie knew they were the same because every mosquito wore a pair of canvas overalls, made from his sails, held up by tarred rope suspenders ! Western Newspaper Union. |