| Show FAMOUS HEADLINE HUNTER k triple threat by FLOYD GIBBONS MATON BLAKE of new york city wants to tell one EDWARD ewell well its ibis tiis turn all right and im glad to make him welcome around the adventurers club campfire ed has a yarn for us that will scare you stiff lie he says lie he went all through the war without finding one to equal it and from what little I 1 have seen of one war and another im inclined to think there a war in history that ever produced such a thrill as the one ed met up with on december 6 1935 ed is a salesman and believe it or not those guys have more cockeyed things happen to them than the average lion caffier fier listen to a bunch of them in the smoking compartment some time theres hardly a one who a hair raising story to tell about the experiences he be has run into while traveling around the country well were in the smoker now and ed is getting ready to tell his if you cant take it ring for the porter and have him bring you the si smelling alling salts traveler pilots car through blinding blizzard in 1935 ed riding in smoking compartments lie he was traveling by automobile nobile he had spent the afternoon of december 6 selling his line in cincinnati ohio before he had finished it had started snowing it looked as if it was going to be a regular blizzard and ed had to get to lexington ky his next stop and be on the job early in the morning he figured it would be best to start driving right away get a good start before the snow got too heavy it was six by the time ed had checked out of his hotel and started on his way the snow he says was falling hard and the temperature was down around ten above zero I 1 very wen well acquainted quain ted with cincinnati but I 1 was doing my best to find the approach to the suspension bridge which would take me across the ohio river to the kentucky side auto plunges into icy waters of ohio river I 1 got on to a street that I 1 felt sure would take me to the bridge head and started down it by that time it was snowing so hard that I 1 could M nah vhf it he shot upward toward the surface only see a foot in front of me my windshield wiper was useless I 1 was practically ally driving blind down that street toward the river and then the thrills began thrills is right the next thing ed knew the street had come to a dead end at the river bank uis his car was shooting out into space from the end of a dock falling toward the ice covered r river 1 I 1 v the car landed on all four wheels but before ed could in make ake a move to get out the ice gave way and down the car went in in ten feet of water ed says that people have often wondered what they would do in the face of death and hed wondered himself a couple of times now chati chati he was looking the old grim reaper straight in the eyes he seemed to have stopped thinking he was acting mechanically some inner recess of his brain seemed to be telling him just what to do ed fights three cornered battle with auto river and ice 1 I had always been a pretty fair swimmer he says and I 1 knew that while there was still life lifa there was hope my first move was to try the door of the car but the force of the water was so great that I 1 could nl budge it I 1 could still breathe in comfort but now the water was coming in through the floor boards of the car creating a pressure and making it seem as if there was a ton of weight on my head eds head began to swim and he knew instinctively that he had to work fast before he lost consciousness ile he tried the opposite door the river current was running from the other direction and this door was easier to handle even so he had to use au all his strength on the job tor for the water outside exerted a terrific pressure of its own but after a struggle he be got the door open and squirmed out as the water came rushing in the icy flood numbed his whole body he shot upward toward the surface says he 1 I kept hoping id be lucky enough to reach the same hole in the ice that I 1 went down through but the current had carried me on and when I 1 reached the top instead of the hole and freedom I 1 touched ice swimming skill plus solid courage save his life that was the one moment in all his battle with death that came nearest to breaking eds heart air hope bope life all were just a few inches away but he was held from them by a solid icy wall but ed was a good swimmer and though the chill water numbed his body he giving up he went into a dive it was a slim chance but it worked when he came up again he was in the air once more still he out of the water 1 I had more trouble he says when I 1 tried to climb out onto the ice each time I 1 would lift my body up on the edge it would break iff and down id go again finally I 1 was lucky enough to grasp the ice where it was thickest it helu held and I 1 climbed out and from the next couple of sentences in eds letter I 1 judge that he was a pretty tough guy the sort of a bird who can take it what did he do when he got out yell for help call an ambulance like anyone else would have done after such an experience not on your life ed walked over the ice to the shore ambled half a block to a waterfront restaurant and hung around till he be warmed up and dried out a bit then he went back to his hotel and waited until morning to put the wreckers to work salvaging his car but ed admits that it till next day when he watched them hauling his bis car back through a hole in the ice that he fully realized how close to death he had really been 0 service |
