Show f Te I ADVENTURERS' ADVENTURERS CLUB H HEADLINES J A D L I N E S FRO FROM M THE L LIVES I V E S OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF I I Triple Thrill HELLO EVERYBODY This column has passed out a lot of free advice at onetime one ont onetime o time or another It seems that everybody who ever has an ado ad ad- venture learns somethIng from irom It u mat he ne wants warns to 10 pass along alongI I to to the rest of the world and this seems to be the clearing house for that kind of information Ive I've issued warnings about everything everything everything every- every thing from jumping off story 40 buildings to getting friendly with the ithe mother-in-law mother of a man-eating man tiger Today Ive I've got another warning for you I dont don't know v if you'll ever have occasion to use it but Ill I'll pass it along for what its it's worth If youre you're ever motoring to Niagara Falls at night dont don't go by the River road That comes from Jim McDermott of New York City r Some of you fellows who have been to that address before may recognize it as the Mens Men's Night Court Well VeIl that's where you'll youIl find Jim Hes He's the fingerprint expert there But in Jim was a member of the Immigration Border Patrol Stationed at Tonawanda N. N Y half way between Niagara Falls FaIls and Buffalo That's how he found out about River road River road was dangerous because of the way cars sped along it at night But speeding cars weren't the only danger folks said It was the duty of Jim and another lad Roscoe lad Roscoe Doane to Doane-to to patrol that road in a car car Their duty was to prevent the smuggling of aliens and of contraband contraband contraband contra contra- band goods the principal contraband in that repeal pre-repeal day being liquor Before I took the job fob says Jim people advised me against it They claimed the bootleggers were desperate and would shoot on sight tI II I found this to be untrue But I r did face death in three violent forms Nin tin about as many minutes on one particular night of my service service They Started Out in a Small Roadster That night came in the spring of 1926 Jim and Roscoe started ont ent nt in a small roadster with the top down Roscoe was driving for Jim at that time didn't know how to operate a car Fix's Ferry was their starting starting- point They hung around there until about 1115 and then started to drive toward Tonawanda They had gone about two miles when they came to a point where The the road narrowed down and the Erie canal ran alongside it for a distance An auto with glaring headlights was approaching It was f r t f t c I i Their car seemed to soar in the road for a moment or two coming straight down the center of the road and it was coming plenty fast last Jim yelled to Roscoe Give this fellow all the room you can or hell he'll hit us Roscoe was already turning over on the grass at the side of the road But the headlights came rushing on Then Then BANG BANG The car hit them Says Jim Our car seemed r to soar in the air for a moment or two As we were hit Roscoe t jumped to get out and landed in my lap The left front wheel of the big sedan had caught our front wheel It lifted our light car completely off oft the road and swung it around At the same time it turned over and landed bottom up diagonally across the narrow narrow narrow nar nar- row roadway Jim says that during the brief moment while they were turning over just one question presented itself to his mind That was Will I Ibe Ibe Ibe be dead when we hit But down there trapped under the overturned car Jim found to his surprise that he wasn't dead I The Weight of the Car Seemed to Increase Momentarily 1 Roscoe was on top of me he says with his back on m my y face and he was doing doing- some struggling I couldn't move My ly o shoulders and the back of my neck were on the road and I was I still on the seat albeit upside down My back ached and the weight of the car crushing crushing- down 0 on n me was increasing mo mo- He was in hi that position when suddenly he heard Roscoe let out an oath Heres a guy kuy doing 50 and no lights he cried Hell hit us sure as hell Jim couldn't see a thing but it was true he knew Their car was lying right across the road A man going at that speed with no lights could hardly help but hit them Says Jim For the second time I thought the end had come I could see only a few feet ahead through the wreckage but hut I could hear the roar of the approaching car I gritted my teeth and struggled to get out but I couldn't move Roscoe was makI making mak- mak I ing lug my position more uncomfortable every second I shouted out ont Where is he At the same time I heard the roar of the motor diminish and Roscoe yelled back Hes gone Two narrow escapes And a third still to ro come As the night grew quiet again Jim discovered that their headlights were still burning and j the motor was still running l. l Suddenly He Felt Something Drip Down on His Face And then suddenly he felt something drip down on his face My first thought was that it was blood he says but that couldn't be This fluid was cold I struggled to fu get my hand to t my face ace bu but before I got it there I knew it was gasoline It was coming from the tank r just outside the dashboard over the I engine I had faced deat twice before before and and now I was facing c it H again in a more dreadful form Our engine was still running I At any moment the car might burst into flames It K didn t occur to Jim to ro shut off the switch He didn't know how to drive a car Momentarily he expected an explosion fire explosion fire agony and death And then all at once he heard voices Someone was saying All on this side now The car was lifted off them and half a dozen men were pulling him out A bunch of army officers returning from Buffalo to ro Fort Niagara had come along and found them The car that hit them had run through a ditch and crashed into luto a tree It contained a suitcase full of counterfeit liquor labels but the driver was gone one He had walked down the road and telephoned telephoned telephoned tele tele- phoned ahead for help The second car had just ma managed aged to get by them because a f farmers farmer's wife who had seen the crash r ran n to the road with a lantern That second car got by with barely two inches to spare But Bat it didn't stop Cars without lights along that road never did Jim was laid up three weeks with a wrenched back but Roscoe Doane got off with a few bruises But even so Jim doesn't think its it's particularly safe at night on that River road Released by try Western New Newspaper aper Union |