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Show Thursday, June 2, 1938 THE PARK RECORD PAGE THREE ADVENTURERS' CLUB HEADLINES OF PEOPLE FROM THE LIVES LIKE YOURSELF! "Fingers of Flame By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter HELLO EVERYBODY: Arthur A. Guinan of Brooklyn, N. Y., is today's Distinguished Distin-guished Adventurer. Art says that although he is a veteran of the World war and saw plenty of service in France, he had to come back home to get in a mess of trouble. And that, boys and girls, is the way a lot of these adventure yarns start out. They start with a peaceful family scene like the one Art describes in his own home on an evening early in November, 1923. It was a cold, rainy Friday night outside, but indoors, in the Guinan dining room, it was cheerful and bright. It was a little early to be lighting the furnace. That's why the Guinans were all gathered In the dining room. They had a kerosene kero-sene oil stove burning in there to well to sort of take the edge off the dampness. Art's mother and dad and brother were there. His dad, who had recently been discharged from the hospital where he'd spent ten months with a badly broken leg, was sitting in an easy chair with his bum leg stretched out stiffly in front of him. He couldn't walk on that leg yet, and was practically an invalid. Their Oil Stove Exploded. Mother was peeling potatoes. Art's brother had stirred up a mess of plaster and was patching a crack in the ceiling. Art had gone out to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat. He was just finishing up when his dad said he didn't like the way the oil stove smelled. Mother said she'd noticed it too.' It was warm enough in the room by that time, anyway. She looked up and saw Art, who had just finished eating and returned to the dining room, and asked him to put the stove out. Art says 'he had a special way of putting out that stove. "We used to turn it down as low as it would go," he says, "and then pick it "Leaning Tower of Pisa," Italy's Most Noted Spot You've probably heard of the "leaning tower" of Pisa, for it is one of the "Seven Wonders of the Modern World." But perhaps you might be interested in some of the details of its construction, and how it came to be known as the "leaning tower." The tower is constructed entirely of white marble, with walls 13 feet thick at the base. It is eight stories high, about 179 feet, which is about the height of a modern 15-story building. At the top it Is 16:.i feet out of the perpendicular. In other words, if a stone were dropped from the lower side of the upper gallery it would strike the ground 164 feet from the wall at the bottom of the tower, says a writer in the Washington Star. The tower was intended as a bell-tower bell-tower for the cathedral, which stands nearby. It was begun in 1174 and completed in 1350. The foundations founda-tions were laid in sand and it started start-ed to tip after the first three gal leries had been built. But the builders went right on with their work, with slightly changed plans. Sometimes you will hear it referred re-ferred to as the "falling" tower of Pisa, for it has tipped an additional foot in the last century. The scientist Galileo, who was born in Pisa, used the tower in his experiments and observations of the stars. This tower has done more to make the Italian city of Pisa famous than all its exciting history, its noted paintings, and its other great buildings. His Dad Was Helpless in the Flaming Room. up by the handle and give it a jerk to put out the last flicker of flame." But nowadays, Art realizes that that's no way to put out an oil stove. On this particular night, though, he didn't realize it. He turned the wick down to the bottom, picked the stove up and gave it a jerk. It didn't go out, so Art gave it another jerk-harder, jerk-harder, this time, than the first. The next thing he knew, he was holding onto something that looked and sounded like Vesuvius on a rampage. That stove gave out a roar that could be heard a block away. A burst of flame six feet long shot across the room. Art's mother was sitting right in the path of it. In a split second she was flaming lik a HUMAN TORCH! Saved Mother but Forgot About Dad. Art dropped the stove and ran to her. Her clothes were blazing in a dozen places. With his bare hands, he started tearing at her dress. "I was pulling that flame apart," he says. "Lord only knows how, but I kept pulling handfuls of burning cloth from her body. My brother started coming down from the ladder he was standing on. In the meantime mean-time my mother and I had worked our way into the kitchen and my brother joined me there." Art and his brother were both pulling at those flames now, and they were making headway. At length they had torn away the last bit of burning cloth beaten out the last spark. Then, suddenly, they thought of their dad! Art says that right there he got the worst fright of his life. They had forgotten about dad in the rush to take care of mother, but now they realized that he was the one who really needed their assistance most. Dad was helpless practically an invalid. He couldn't move out of his chair, and back there in the dining room, the whole place was blazing. Art turned to run into the dining room. The door leading to It was a raging furnace. A curtain of flame covered its whole length and breadth. Art hesitated just a fraction of a second. Then he plunged right through the door, flames and all. Flames Couldn't Stop Art. There was a smoke-filled space in the center of the room where the flames had not yet spread. His dad was over at the other side of it. Art plunged across that space in nothing flat and gathered his father in his arms. "nis right shoe," Art says, "was almost burned from his foot. I started to carry him toward the back door, but about half way across the room I stumbled. Dad fell on top of me and knocked the wind out of me. I thought I'd never get it back again. Before I did, the flames had crept up on us." It was about that time that Art felt a terrible pain in his right leg. When he looked at it he saw that the legs of his trousers were afire. But there was no time to lose. They had to get out of that room right away. Art picked his dad up again and dragged him toward the door with one arm while he was beating out the flames in his pants legs with the other. It was a hectic five minutes. At last he was through the door. He set his dad down in a chair in the yard back of the house and ran to turn in the fire alarm. "It wasn't until I reached for the alarm box," he says, "that I realized how badly I was burnt. My hands looked like a couple of beefsteaks, and my legs were worse. That peaceful little home of ours looked like a hospital for the next six months." Copyright. WNU Service. Bonnie, Bonnie. Banks of Loch Lomond Attractive They may change the music of the folk song, but the "bonnie, bon-nie bon-nie banks of Loch Lomond" rank as one of the greatest attractions of all Scotland, asserts a correspondent correspond-ent in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Long before "jitterbugs" discovered discov-ered the song, Loch Lomond held a high place in the hearts of all who knew its lovely shores, rich in stirring stir-ring history and curious legends. "Its fame and beauty has been recorded in poetry, song and legend for many generations and the entire en-tire countryside about it still wears the mantle of Sir Walter Scott's enchantment." Loch Lomond and the Trossachs are the legendary land of Rob Roy and the scene of the "Lady of the Lake." On one of the islands of the lake Robert the Bruce grew the yews for the arrows needed by his archers. Travelers to this region meet Rob Roy as soon as they leave the village vil-lage of Aberfoyle, for the road winding up the hillside affords them a view of a solitary crag, known as his writing desk. At Loch Arklet he carried off his bride, Helen Macgregor, and in Glen Arklet lies the site of a fort built to frighten him away a fort which frightened the bold outlaw so little that he attacked it twice, and finally dismantled it. Buihmen Practice Simple Life; Are Always Happy In the Kalahari desert of the Bechuanaland protectorate may be found a Stone age race, which has had to give way first to the Hottentots Hotten-tots and then to the Bantu and the European. A special refuge camp had been provided in this desert for these Bushmen a people without country, creed, or protective government where they may live secure from surrounding tribes of Bantu and be saved from extinction, writes a correspondent cor-respondent in the Philadelphia Inquirer. In-quirer. The Bushmen are small, about 4 feet 8 inches in height, with an average aver-age weight of 95 pounds. Sun-baked from infancy, their skins are shriveled shriv-eled and the soles of their feet cal-lused cal-lused from long wanderings on the desert sands. Rough shelters of branches covered over with loose grass provide their "homes." Water is scarce, and is preserved for drinking drink-ing in ostrich egg shells buried in the sand. ' Throughout their lives the Bushmen Bush-men never take a bath, but smear themselves with fat when meat is plentiful. The procuring of food and water is the whole business of life. Certain trees provide a few berries ; tsama melons, filled with water, grow in the sand, and the bush country coun-try provides antelopes. But subsistence sub-sistence is ata low level, and is eked out with scorpions and insects of all kinds. White ants and their eggs are an especial delicacy. The Bushmen's weapons are the bow and arrow, and with these they are remarkably good hunters, keen at tracking ard stalking and tireless tire-less in pursuit. The arrows do not kill, but inject a slow poison into the animal which must then be followed fol-lowed patiently until the poison takes full effect. We Use Many Unnecessary Things In the customary way of life man has long been habituated to the routine usage of various substances and -materials that are not physiologically physio-logically necessary to his continued existence. Tea, coffee, alcohol, tobacco, to-bacco, opium and betal nut are statistically sta-tistically among the more conspicuous conspicu-ous examples, according to a Johns Hopkins university authority. It is probably safe to say that over 90 per cent of all adult human beings habitually make use of one or more of the component materials included includ-ed in this group. All of them contain con-tain substances of considerable physiological potency. Canada Has "Townships" Divided in Early Times For a generation following the American Revolution which ended in 1783, the Canadian-United States international boundary line was only vaguely known, and some considerable con-siderable settlements were made by people who may have thought they were still in the United States. Most of the settlers came from the New England states and established themselves in what are known as the Eastern Townships of Quebec, relates a writer in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. This territory was divided into townships in the early years o: the British regime in Canada. This mode of division distinguished the section from the parishes of the low lands near the St. Lawrence that were established during the period of French control. The "townships" comprise 13 counties and occupy some 8,000 square miles of rolling plain. On the south and east they extend to the international border and are adjacent to the states of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The location of this storied area of French-Canada makes it of easy access to the motorist who will find that nature and man have cooperated co-operated in making it one of the finest holiday centers of the continent. There' More to Sponge Than Just Mass of Cells As you see it, a sponge is just a mass of little cells. When it is alive and breathing, if not exactly kicking, in its ocean bed, these cells are filled with jelly. It lives on the water it absorbs through its small pores, the waste water passing out through the large holes at the top. During its . infancy the sponge propels itself by the lashing of innumerable in-numerable tiny hairs, but when it grows to maturity it settles down to be a real "stick-in-the-mud," says a writer in London Answers Magazine. Maga-zine. For centuries the true nature of the sponge baffled the scientific mind. It was once thought to be a vegetable and at one period was confidently accepted as a nest created cre-ated by the worms which not unnaturally unnat-urally are often found in it. Not until a hundred years ago did the truth dawn on the scientist Robert Grant. There are over 2,000 known varieties varie-ties of sponges, of beautiful and fan tastic shapes. One resembles a wineglass of enormous size, and others are commonly found in the form of cups, balls, fans, and discs. But the most fascinating of all are the "glass sponges" found in eastern east-ern waters. Some have their skeletons of transparent flint covered with a delicate del-icate network of the finest lace, which in perfection of design rivals the efforts of the skilled lace-maker. Others again are made up of almost transparent gauze. All these are. of course, "show-pieces" which cannot be used in the bath. Nighthawk Protected by Nature The nighthawk, which is frequent ly observed at dusk, is well endowed en-dowed by nature in protective col oration. When it is incubating it can hardly be distinguished from its surroundings. It usually picks a site on a gravel roof or the ground and makes no nest for its eggs. While flying it is constantly gobbling up insects which form the bulk or its Mint an Important Crop and Reaches Wide Market Mint is one of the most imoortant of all essential producers of aromatic aro-matic oil, the product distilled from it going to widespread markets in large quantities to help supply the need for medicinal compounds, confectioners' con-fectioners' flavorings and extracts. Menthol and pimenthol also come from mint, the former being prepared pre-pared in Japan from one species, while pimenthol is American, produced pro-duced from an entirely different kind of mint. Japanese mint culture is confined to a single spot in northern Japan,' the island of Hondo, where just one species, Menthe arvensis, variety piperascens, is grown exclusively. This particular mint is not known in wild form. It is inferior to the best grades of commercial mint but it is the original source of menthol, men-thol, besides which its oil, when distilled, exceeds all others in th quantitative menthol crystal pro duction. Best known of our mints, states a writer in the Los Angeles Times, is "peppermint," or Menthe piperita, piper-ita, the commonly designated American Amer-ican mint. In New York this same mint, which reaches a height of three feet, is known as State mint. Menthe piperita, variety vulgaris, the so-called black mint, is a darkj type of a littlft less height than peppermint pep-permint but with thicker stems and heavier, broader leaves. It ranks near the top as a popular commercial commer-cial kind. One sort, entirely different from the others, is Menthe citrata, or; lemon mint. Oil from this species is used extensively in perfume manufacture. The small, hairy-leaved species M. pulegium, provides the oil front; which is distilled the Pennyroyal of commerce. Spearmint, or Menth spicata, is a household word in this country. A A. -A A ; win K H i'ii ii ii i u u u (0 Nutria Native of South Africa The nutria is a native of South Africa, although it is specially bred on "farms" in many parts of" the world. It measures between one and two feet long, not counting a long scaly tail. In color, it may be anything between brown and yellow. yel-low. In habits it is really of an aquatic nature, but will easily drop this and wander anywhere in search of food. Before preparing, the fur is rather harsh and stiff. 1 I o: .: A JMIAI Q W9 - K-JUcohol 20 hj Yolum ski -JUcohol 12 to 14 by Yolum 83 proof 1 n. Roma California Wines J Products of ROMA WINE COMPANY. Lodl California i 11? IHEOTAL DIVIDI ISf'Esf PART SIX .TfAnWrtmodm-icr hortrayiMg contribution ofthtRio Grand to Otvtlopmtnt OJ im iimrawiBora rv Everybody Claims It Members of the three religions regard Adam's peak, near Colombo, Ceylon, with reverence. It is famous fa-mous for a footprint seven feet long. According to Buddhists the print was made by Buddha. Hindus, on the other hand, maintain that it was left by Siva, and Christians sometimes some-times identify this region with the Garden of Eden, therefore holding that the footprint is that of none other than Adam. Three Instruments Aid Gypsies The Gypsy violin, cymbal, and the old Turkish pipe are the three instruments in-struments which have made the Gypsies cf Hungary the national troubadours. The Tziganes were admitted ad-mitted to Hungary in 1419. Cecil J. Rhodes Born in England Cecil John Rhodes, the South African Af-rican statesman, who amassed a fortune in the diamond fields of Kimberley, -was born at Bishop Stortford, Hertfordshire, England, July 5, 1S53. Treasure House Among Marvels At the Seraglio palace, Istanbul, there is a treasure house of gems that is among the marvels of the modern world. The collection has thousands of priceless diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, pearls of the first water, and the famed golden divan throne of the Sixteenth cen tury sultan, Selim the Grim. The throne is made of beaten gold, and studded with rubies, turquoise and emeralds. t I I . . . ffc i ..vr. The Southern Capes Cape Horn extends farther south than the Cape of Good Hope by more than 1,500 miles. The city of Cape Town, very near the southern end of the African continent, is in about the same latitude as Montevideo, Monte-video, Uruguay. i . " . t Dawn of the twentieth century found the Rio Grande's Royal Gorge Route Brrus -scj ... j 4 . . . Ti . 1 T1..1 n - .till A- J U.4..4 . .2 1 O WeCuuly JOlOruuO una UluH empire. CUl wcuybi ouu uiovmwu u u oiiuuvm u uuij continental railroad directly west Thru the Rockies.' , ; Colorado's first territorial Governor, Wm. H. Gilpin, in 1861 predicted a great tunnel tinder the Continental Divide in the vicinity of James Peak. His successor, John Evans,1 la 1864 urged eastern capitalists to build the first transcontinental line on a route closely paralleling the Rio Grande's present-day Moffat Tunnel Route. Even though the tunnel could not be financed privately, the dream persisted and la 19C2 David Mofiat started construction of the Denver and Salt Lake Railroad, crowing the divide at Corona Pass, 11,660 ft. in elevation. Costly construction and high opera?. Ing expenses hindered the new line, which by 1913 had been completed only to Craig; Colo far short oi its Utah objective. Then the people of the Denver area decided to finance the Moffat Tunnel Construci Hon started in August 1923. For 42 long months hundreds of hard-rock miners bor4 . Into massive James Peak, working from east and west portals. Blasting away of the' final rocky barrier climaxed the dramatic "holing thru" ceremony February 13, 1927. , The great bore, 6.2 miles long, 4,021 feet under the summit of James Peak, was conv pleted in February 1923, at a cost of approximately $18,000,001 The apex in the center of the tunnel is the highest point on the Moffat Tunnel Route, 8,233 feet. The railroad . . tint. - 1 l fit It 1 A Vh :tJAH ( ;t An; rrr( ta Va m tt i rvui m 1 runnel, 10 xx wia dy i h. uiyu w mc luiiuuua vi il ocuii-vuuiui iai, m Word "Ritzy" Misleading The commonly accepted American Ameri-can definition of the coined word "ritzy," as signifying something aloof and "high hat" is all wrong, according to an authority. for American railroads. The permanent tunnel lining is reinforced concrete of varyina thickness. The railroad through the runnel is iaid with continuous jointless welded 112-nound 112-nound rail. Drovidina unusually smooth riding qualities. An elaborate ventilating sys tem, together with air-conditioning of passenger cars, entirely eliminates smoke. The barrier of the Great Divide yielded to the persistent skill of empire builders, but until the Denver & Rio Grande Western constructed the Dotsero Cutoff there was ' no direct east-end-west line between Denver, Utah and the Facilic ioast. . For information ahoui jdiedalej, IreTght rales, passenger fares M. A. POI ND, Agent Phone 189 |
