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Show famous rfef y 'p J HcADLlME HUNTER pWSN "A Duel With Death" By FLOYD GIBBON'S WELL, sir, no matter how much I talk about the danger of hooking rides on freight cars, there are still lads who will take their chances on the rear end of a romping rattler. And here's Collin Hanson of Lynn, Mass., the latest Distinguished Adventurer to win his spurs on one of those square, eight-wheeled contrivances con-trivances that ride along on the tail of an iron horse. It was in the summer sum-mer of 1934, just after Collin had been graduated from high-school, that he and another lad, Henry Madison, started out to see America first in one short summer vacation. They began by hitching: rides In automobiles, but by the time they reached Columbus, Ohio, they were wondering If they wouldn't make faster time and cover more territory if they hopped a freight or two. In a Hurry to Get Home Again. They were a little bit afraid of those freight trains at first, but everything every-thing seemed to work out all right. In no time at all the side-door pull-mans pull-mans had carried them to Amarillo, Texas, but by the time they got there Collin says they were two of the most miserable boys you ever saw. They were hungry, and tired, and dirty, and everything else that goes with the life of a hobo. The open road and the gypsy life wasn't what it was cracked up to be. They wanted to get home again, and the sooner they got there the better they'd like it. So back to the railroad yards they went. In their haste to get home again they rode day and night. They arrived in Kansas City on August 15, so tired that they could hardly keep their eyes open. But still they weren't going to waste any time. A freight train was being made up in the Kansas City yards. It was due to pull out at eight o'clock that evening. And tired or not, Collin and Hank Madison were going to be on it On Top of a Swaying Box Car. There were about twenty other fellows waiting for that train, but when it finally came there wasn't a single reefer, coal car, cattle car or flat car in the line. The whole string consisted of sealed box cars, and that meant that anybody who boarded it would have to ride the roof or on the coupling between the cars. Most of the old-time, dyed-in-the-wool hoboes shook their heads and passed it up. They could wait for more comfortable accommodations. But Collin and Hank wanted to get home. Paying no attention to the example of older and more experienced heads, they climbed aboard. They climbed to the swaying roof of a box car and tried to make the best of it. Hank had a rope. He tied it around his waist, fastened it to the cat walk, and fell asleep. Collin sat up and rode that way for about six hours. The night wore on and the sky started turning gray in the east. Collin was dead tired and the cold morning air was chilling him to the bone. At last he got up and crawled toward the front of the car. Woke Up to Find Himself Falling. There was a small platform up there, about four feet down from the top of the car the place where the brakeman stands while he turns the brake wheel. Collin crawled down and sat on that. It was warmer between the two cars and he began to get drowsy. Collin says that if anybody had told him he could fall asleep sitting on such a perilous perch he would never have believed it. BUT. THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HE DID I Most everyone has had the experience of dreaming that he was falling fall-ing through the air. That's a pretty terrible sensation. But how would you feel if you woke up and found that it was true? How would you feel if you woke up to find, as Collin Hanson did, that you were falling between two box cars rolling along over the tracks at 35 or 40 miles an hour? I'd like to be able to tell you how Collin felt. If I could put that into words I'd probably be describing one of the greatest frights in all history. Caught the Rubber Air-Hose. There wasn't any time to think about it. In another two seconds he'd be on the ties under the grinding wheels of the train. He fell forward, face down, a little to the right of the coupling. His right shoulder and hip bumped against it and he felt himself being turned over on his back. Instinctively, his arms reached out to clutch at anything that might arrest his fall, and his left hand closed on the pin bar a thin steel rod that ran down the end of the car ahead. Then he had rolled off ihe'coupling and was falling toward the ground. THERE WAS A JERK ON HIS LEFT ARM THAT ALMOST PULLED IT OUT OF ITS SOCKET. HIS RIGHT HAND WHIPPED OUT AND CAUGHT HOLD OF THE RUBBER AIR-HOSE THAT HANGS BENEATH THE COUPLING. THEN HIS FEET HIT THE GROUND, AND IN THE NEXT COUPLE SECONDS COLLIN KNEW WHAT IT MEANT TO BE FIGHTING FOR LIFE. As his feet hit the ties the soles and heels of his shoes were ripped off as if they had been made of paper. His body felt as if it was going to be yanked in half. Pain shot through his armpits and his hands ached from the strain that was being put upon them. But he held on desperately while his brain raced, groping for a way out of his predicament. Only One Way to Save His Life. For an instant he thought of throwing himself sideways in an effort to get clear of the wheels. One look told him he would never make it. Then he hit upon the only thing in the world that could save him. His arms were almost being wrenched from his body. His body was dragging along far underneath the car. But with one tremendous effort he managed to swing his right leg up and get it over the coupling. He hung that way for a few seconds till he got his breath and his strength back and then he climbed up to the top of the car. "It had been a lor-.g time since I had prayed," Collin said, "but I sat down right there and spent a long time thanking God for sparing my life." And I think it was a pretty good idea, at that. WNU Service. |