Show t- t t o ADVENTURERS' ADVENTURERS CLUB rk HEADLINES HE AD L IN E S FROM FRO M. M THE LIVES L IV E S y OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF Triple Thrill HELLO H ELLO EVERYBODY I This column has passed pass cd out a lot of free advice at one ont onetime onetime time or another It seems that everybody who ever has an ad ad- adventure adventure venture learns something from it that he wants to pass along 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 every every- everything everything thing from jumping off story 40 buildings to getting friendly with the mother-in-law mother of a man-eating man tiger Today Ive I've got another warning for you I dont don't know if you'll ever have occasion to use it but pass Ill 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 Some of you fellows who have been to that address before may recognize it as the Mens Men's Night Court Well that's where you'll ll iu find Jim Hes He's the fingerprint expert there But in 1926 Jim was a member of the Immigration Border Patrol stationed at Tonawanda N N. N Y half hal 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 Their duty was to prevent the smuggling of aliens and of contra contra- contraband contraband band goods the principal contraband in that repeal pre-repeal day being liquor Before I took the job says Jim people advised me against it They claimed the bootleggers were desperate and would shoot on sight I found this to be untrue But I did face death in three violent forms in m about as many minutes on one particular night of my service They Started Out in a Small Roadster That That night came in the spring of 1926 Jim and Roscoe started out 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 point They hung around there until about 1115 and aud then started to drive toward Tonawanda They had gone about two miles when they came to a point where the road narrowed down and the Erie canal ran alongside it for a distance An auto with glaring headlights was approaching It was wasI ll I II r- r ti 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 ast 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 to soar in the air for a moment or two As we were hit Roscoe 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 the road and swung it around At the same time it turned over and landed bottom up diagonally across the nar nar- narrow narrow row v 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 Ie Ibe Ibe be e dead when we hit But down there trapped under the overturned car Jim found to his surprise that he wasn't dead The Weight of the Car Seemed to Increase Momentarily Roscoe was on top of me he says with his back on my face and he was doing some struggling I couldn't move My ly shoulders and the back of my neck were on the road and I was still on the seat albeit upside down My ly back bacle ached and the weight of the car crushing down on me was increasing mo mo- He was in that position when suddenly he heard Roscoe let out an oath Heres a guy 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 I Lights could hardly help but hit them Says Jim For the second time I thought the end had come I could see sec only afew a few feet ahead through the wreckage but 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 mak mak- making making making ing my position more uncomfortable every second I shouted out 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 come As the night grew quiet again Jim discovered that their headlights were still burning and the motor was still running Suddenly He Felt Something Drip Down on His Face And then suddenly he felt something drip down on his face My Iy 1 first thought was that it was blood he says but that couldn't be This fluid was cold I struggled to get my hand to tomy tomy tomy my face but before I got it there I knew it was gasoline It was coming from the tank just outside the dashboard over the th engine I had faced dean deat twice before before and and now I was facing it again in a more dreadful form Our engine was still running At any moment the car might burst into flames It didn't occur to Jim to 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 AIl on this side now The car was lifted off them and half hal a dozen men were pulling him out A bunch of army officers returning from Buffalo to Fort Niagara had come along and found them The car that hit them had run through a ditch and crashed into a tree It contained a suitcase full of counterfeit liquor labels but bat the driver was gone He had bad walked down the road and tele tele- telephoned telephoned telephoned phoned ahead for help The second car had just managed to get by them because a farmers farmer's wife who had seen the crash ran ran to the road with a lantern That second car got by with barely two inches to spare But 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 ronde Released by Western Newspaper Union |