| Show af adventurers CLUB t HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES C OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF death I headed north by FLOYD GIBBONS famous headline hunter i ELLO EVERYBODY H now this is the story of an adventure that almost any one lof of us might have got into anyone who has ever ridden on a railroad chance finding himself in just such a roa d train has taken a on terrifying situation As luck would have it it happened to fenton barrett of shaker hollow south salem N Y and boys and girls I 1 wish it to be distinctly understood that I 1 am very glad it happened to font fent barrett and not to me pent fent barrett is an actor he had just finished a run in a successful musical show on broadway not long before he starred in m the thriller terille r he is going to tell us about now when the show closed he went south for a vacation but he been there long when he got a wire telling him to come back to new york and start rehearsals in m a new prodoc tion fent left that night for washington and in washington he got aboard the train for new york the train that was to carry him right smack into the most thrilling moment of his life fire started in the wash room it was a hot day the first of august 1928 pent fent decided to ride in the smoker where he could take his coat off and be comfortable usually the smoker is up front next to the baggage car but in this case it was the last car on the train the train bowled along over the countryside without any interruption and without any hint of the drama that was to come it was getting near the big city and the train porter came in and began cleaning up the car pent fent was sitting in the third seat from the front and was watching the porter idly as he moved about the train was coming into the whole wash room was roaring with flame elizabeth N J and the porter with a large bundle ol of old newspapers had just gone into the mens wash room that porter says fent had been in the wash room only a few seconds when suddenly he came leaping out into the aisle As he did I 1 saw the reflection of flames on the highly polished door the porter made a desperate attempt to close the door but by this time the whole wash room was roaring with flame and he be was beaten back pent fent jumped to his feet he was one of seven men in the car including the conductor and porter before he could get out of his seat the flames were almost on him and he had barely time to grab his coat and brief case and dash to the rear of the car stop the blazing train meanwhile with all the windows open the blaze spread through the car ar like wild fire As pent fent reached the rear of the car he looked back just in time to see the conductor reach for the signal rope to stop the train the rope was blazing even as he grabbed for it As he pulled on it it snapped in two their only way of communicating with the engineer the only means of stopping that speeding train was gone we all crowded back to the rear platform says fent and divided three on each side the porter had climbed over the iron gate and was hanging to the back end of the train for dear life by this time half the car was on fire and with us in the last car and the train doing sixty five miles an hour it certainly looked bad one of the passengers became hysterical and the conductor had a hard time trying to keep him from jumping off the back end ot of the train we were all choking and almost overcome by smoke and the fumes of burning paint and varnish I 1 felt myself getting panicky and dropped to my knees and put my nose to the floor trying to get a good breath of air the fire was all through the car by this time streaming right down the aisle and shooting out the door onto the rear platform pent fent felt something move beneath him it was that iron lid which covers the steps the porter had loosened it and was motioning the three men who were standing on it to step back so he could swing it open they squirmed around until they could get it up and then they crowded down onto the steps all jumped at 30 mile alile speed the porter screamed to them not to jump the flames crowded them harder now and pent fent was kept busy dodging broken glass and tongues of fire that licked back at him through the rear windows the heat was s so 0 terrific that he made his mind up to jump soon rather than be burned to death and then the brakes went on the train started to jerk and slow down it slowed from sixty five to f fifty to forty when it was going about thirty fent jumped and the rest of them followed 1 I was thrown up against the bank pent fent says but I 1 badly hurt A few scratches and bruises but I 1 was too glad to be off that burning car to pay any attention to a little thing like that the train went on for forbau half a mlle mile before it came to a stop and we ran and caught up with it by that time the car we had been in was just a red hot steel irame frame not a window or a seat left and they were having quite a time trying to disconnect it from the rest of the train because the steel was so hot the brakeman touch the couplings we got into another car I 1 T fell into the seat exhausted ea for it was then that I 1 first realized what I 1 had been through copyright service |
