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Show ADVENTURERS CLUB J HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES &Y OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF! N "The River Road" By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter HELLO EVERYBODY: . This column has passed out a lot of free advice at one time or another. It seems that everybody who ever has an adventure, learns something from it that he wants to pass along to the rest of the world, and this seems to be the clear-in clear-in house for that kind of information. I've issued warnings about everything from jumping off 40-story buildings to get-ting get-ting friendly with the mother-in-law of a man-eating tiger. Today I've got another warning for you. I don't know if you 11 ever have occasion to use it, but I'll pass it along for what it's worth, u you're ever motoring to Niagara Falls at nigm, aon i go vy road. That comes from Jim McDermott, New York City. Some ol you fellows who have been to that address before may recognize H as the Men's Night Court. Well, that's where you'll find Jim. He's the fingerprint expert there. But in 1926, Jim was a member mem-ber of the Immigration Border patrol, stationed at Tonawanda, N. Y., half way between Niagara Falls and Buffalo. That's how he found out about River road. River road was dangerous because of the way cars sped along u at night But speeding cars weren't the only danger, folks said. It was the duty of Jim and another lad-Roscoe Doane to patrol the road In a car. Their duty was to prevent the smuggling of aliens and of contraband con-traband goods, the principal contraband In that pre-repeal day being liquor. This Was No Job for a Weak Heart. "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 about as many minutes on one particular night of my service. 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 un-til about 11:15, and 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 coming straight down the center of the road and it was coming plenty fast Jim yelled to Roscoe, "Give this fellow all toe room you can, or he'll hit us." Roscoe was already turning over on the grass at the side of the road. But the headlights came rushing on. Jim Is Surprised to Find Himself Alive. Then 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 in hi i ii n" i "r i 11 "II It turned over and landed bottom up. 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 oif the road and swung it around. At the same time, it turned over and landed bottom up, diagonally across the narrow roadway." Jim says that, during the brief moment while they were turning turn-ing over, just one question presented itself to his mind. That was: "Will I be dead when we hit?" But down there, trapped under the overturned car, Jim found to his surprise that he wasn't dead. "Roscoe was on top of me," he says, "with his hark on mv face, and he was doing some struggling. I couldn't move. My shoulders and the back of my neck were on the road, and I was still on the seat, albeit upside down. My back ached and the weight of the car, crushing down on me, was increasing momentarily." He was in that position when suddenly he heard Roscoe let out art oath "Here's a guy doing fifty and no lights," he cried. "He'll 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. And There Was More to Come! Says Jim: "For the second time, I thought the end had come. 1 could see only 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 making my position mora 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 Two narrow escapes. And a third still to come. As the nicht grew quiet again, Jim discovered that their headlights were still burning and the motor was still running. And then, suddenly, he felt something drip down on his face. "My first thought was that it was blood," lie says, "but that couldn't be. This fluid was cold. I struggled to get my hand to 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 engine. I had faced death twice before and now I was facing It again in a more dreadful form. Our engine was still running. At any moment tlio car might burst into Dames!" . , - , , , , It didn't occur to Jim to shut off the switch. lie didn t know how to drive a car. Momentarily he expected an explosion fire a (jony 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 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 the driver was gone. He had walked down the road and telephoned ahead for help. The second car had Just managed man-aged to get by them because a farmer's wife, who had seen the crash, 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 Roscoo Doane got off with a few bruises. But even so, Jim doesn't think it'i particularly safe at night on that River road. WNU Service. |