Show BROADWAY AND MAIN STREET STREETWise STREETWise I Wise Boys learn Impossible Sometimes Can Cn Happen By BILLY ROSE Last night at Lindy's a bunch of us were discussing what for want of a better term Ill I'll call the inevitability of the impossible The most improbable yarn I ever heard said Deems Taylor is the one about a missionary named Renault who was captured in 1948 by bya a tribe of cannibals in French Equatorial Africa According to a report in the files out at the UN U.N. just as they were about to roast him over afire a afire fire tire shish kebob style t the h e missionary missionary mis mis- fell feU to his knees and asked the Lord to have mercy on his servant servant servant ser ser- vant Renault And when the cannibal cannibal cannibal canni canni- bal chief chiet heard the name he untied untied un un- un tied him and told him to go about Billy Rose RoseNo his business No it wasn't the prayer that did the trick trick trick-It it seems that six months before they had cooked and eaten another gent named Renault and he had turned out to be tough and tasteless I KNOW AN equally implausible story I piped up The one about the clerk in Tacoma Washington who was handed five thousand dol dollars dollars lars las to buy Insurance for a bridge that was under construction The fellow had never stolen a nickel inI in his life Ute but this was one temptation temptation I tion he couldn't stand off what off what Inthe in inthe inthe the name of the Ute five Ringling Broth Broth- ers could happer happen to a bridge Suiting misdeed to thought the clerk went to o Reno Retlo and blew in the whole five live grand on a d couple oj of gals and then the night before or ho he was due to start back th the Mayor of oj Tacoma phoned and wanted to know about th the insurance It II seemed that tb the bridge bridge the the famous lamous Galloping Gertie Genie of 01 the news news- reels reels had had come apart at tb the seams and fallen into th the gorge C S S THE liTHE OR NOT that tops them all aU is the one about Charles Coghlan said Eugene Burr who writes the theatre pieces for Pla Playbill bm Charles who 1 asked Coghlan said Burr the actor who used to play opposite Lily Llly Langtry back in tin the last century When he was 50 he bought himsel a farm on Prince Edward Island In Inthe inthe inthe the Gulf of St. St Lawrence and quit the stage for what be he thought was good A few years later however Robertson Forbes-Robertson made mode him a very attractive offer to play I In a touring production of ot Romeo and Juliet and while Coghlan I hated to leave the island he couldn't I afford to turn the offer down In one season hed he'd earn enough to be able to live comfortably the rest of his life When his neighbors came down downto to the boat to see him off aU the actor assured them that come heaven or high water hed he'd return when his tour was ended And he did did but but it took both heaven and high water and In that order to arrange it Heaven got gol into the act ael shortly after alter th the tour lour started started- in Galveston h he suffered ml a d heart attack and died an and was buried it in a cemetery not nol far lar from Irom the sea The high water came a year later September 8 1900 when a tidal wave hit hil Galveston drowned six thousand people and washed a good auay away part of oj the waterfront including I most of oj the coffins collins in the cem I tery Some months after the disaster a fisherman on Prince Edward Island Island Island Is Is- land went down to the b beach ach one morning to Inspect his nets and found a coffin cotlin which had washed up upon upon upon on the sands On it was a brass plate with the name Charles Coghlan the Coghlan the actor with an assist from the Gulf GuU Stream had made good his promise to re reA turn |