The sun. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1937-1972, January 07, 1938, Image 3
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ADVENTURERS’ CLUB
HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES
OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELFI
“John Dunker’s Jump”
By FLOYD GIBBONS
Famous Headline Hunter
H ello, everybody:
Well, by golly, today we have with us a guy who has
chased old lady Adventure in some of the farthest corners of the
globe. His chase ended after he had followed her all over South
Africa, and finally ran her to earth in Gwelo, in Matabeleland,
way up in the middle of southern Rhodesia. This guy’s name is
John Dunker, and today he lives in Brooklyn, N. Y. But along
about the turn of the century, he was fighting with the South
African Colonial cavalry in the Boer war.
John didn’t class the Boer war as an adventure, though. The yarn
he crashes into the Adventurers’ club with happened after that mixup
was all over. After John’s regiment was paid off and disbanded, he
went up to Bulawayo—went broke there and, hearing of a job up in
Gwelo, a hundred and fifteen miles to the north, trekked up there on foot.
The old timers in that district thought he was crazy to attempt
such a thing. They figured it must be at least a ten-million dollar
diamond mine that induced him to take such risks. But all John
was after was a job—and all he got out of his trip was a good sock
from that old adventure lady he’d been chasing.
John says that that adventure was the biggest single thrill of his
life, and I believe him. He says: “I had nice curly hair back in 1902, and
every kink of it stood at attention when the thing happened—or rather,
after it happened. For actually I did not know I was having an adven
ture until some two and a half seconds after it was all over.”
John landed his job in Gwelo, and went right to work. It was a job
that called for a lot of horseback riding—but that didn’t bother a guy who
bad walked more than a hundred miles just to get the doggone job.
Also, it was a job that called for crossing the Gwelo river at frequent
intervals. And it was the rivgr that put John in the way of adventure
He Would Jump Across the River.
The Gwelo river was one of those streams you just couldn’t figure
out. In the rainy season it could be a rushing, raging torrent. But at
other times of the year, it was nothing but a dry bed, cut through by a
The “Tree Trunk” Had Its Jaws Wide Open.
little trickle of water that a man could jump over. It ran down to the
Zambesi, one of the biggest rivers in Africa, and it was usually full of
crocodiles, and queer fish, and other strange and awesome denizens of
the African waters.
The place where John worked was on one side of the Gwelo
and the corral where the horses were kept was on the other. In
the rainy season, when the river was high, you had to go the long
way, over the bridge, to get to the horses, but in the dry season,
John used to save time by going straight across. That was easy,
because the river was narrow enough so that you could make it
with a good leap. And John always made his crossing at a cer
tain spot where the bank was steep and there was a dead tree
trunk lying on the other side.
He would get up speed by running down the high-sided bank, take a
broad jump across the water, and land on the tree trunk on the opposite
side. He did it again and again, and never thought that there might be
any danger in such a simple stunt. But that’s the thing about danger.
You never know where it’s liable to be lurking.
Well, sir, one day John had a job to do that took him to a mine over
at Selukwe, and he had to have his horse to make the trip. He started out
for the river, turning over in his mind the things he had to do that day,
and was deep in thought when he reached the top of the bank.
It Felt Wrong, and It Was.
He raced down the bank, made his running jump, and landed on the
dead tree as usual, but there was something about that tree trunk that
wasn’t as it should be. It felt peculiar when John landed on it. And it
seemed to him that the doggone thing moved a bit when he lit. It was
only for a fraction of a second that the feeling went through him—a lot
shorter time than it takes to tell it—but it was enough to make him
move faster than usual, getting off that log.
The bank in front of him was as high and as steep as the one he had
run down on the other side. Usually, he took his time about climbing
to the top. But this time, impelled by his hunch that something was
wrong, he gave a leap that sent him half-way to the top, and had scram
bled the rest of the way before hq stopped to look back.
What John saw from the top of the bank sort of amazed him,
at first. But his amazement soon gave way to another sort of
feeling altogether. The first thing be noticed was that he hadn’t
crossed the river in his usual place at all. The tree trunk he usu
ally stepped on was lying near the bank ten or fifteen yards
downstream. In his preoccupation, he had crossed the river in
the wrong place.
And what was that thing John had mistaken for the tree trunk?
Well, that’s what gave him the shock of his life. When he turned to look
from the top of the bank, the first thing he noticed was that that tree
trunk had started out of the water after him. It had its jaws wide open,
that tree trunk did, and it had a couple of beady little eyes that seemed to
be registering disappointment over the fact that it had just missed as
juicy a morsel as had ever jumped right smack at it.
Yc^—you’re right. That tree trunk was a full-grown, MAN-
EATING CROCODILE!
“How did -I feel then?” says John. “Well, at that moment, every
experience I’d ever had in my life faded right into insignificance."
Copyright.—WNU Service.
The Deer’s Leap
The National Bureau of Standards
says that if the deer started his
leap with sufficient force to com
plete it, he would complete the leap,
alive or dead; that is, unless some
force, such as a bullet striking him,
decreased his speed, or he changed
his position in such a way as to
strike the far side in landing.
Polar Eskimos Friendly
Polar Eskimos are a friendly,
happy people who live farther north
than any other human beings. They
rove the Arctic from Greenland to
Alaska. Skin tents are their habi
tation during the brief summer;
snow igloos their winter homes.
Their food, save for a few birds’
eggs and berries, is exclusively
flesh—the seal, bear, fox, whale,
walrus and reindeer being the prov
ender. They are prodigious eaters,
hence their plumpness and perhaps
their good nature.
\
Ship Route Is “Inside Passage”
For about a thousand miles along
the coast of British Columbia and
Alaska there is a remarkable steam
er route known as the “Inside Pas
sage" or “safe way.” A great sys
tem of islands, the exposed summits
of the insular mountain range par
alleling the coast, gives shelter from
the main ocean.
Needle-Shedding Conifers
The larch is the only tree in the
North, and the cypress the only tree
in the South among our native con
ifers which drop all of their needles
each year. Most conifers lose only
a fractional part of their needles
during the fall season. Brown col
oration and falling off of the white
pine needles on last year’s twigs is
a well known example of this par
tial defoliation by natural habit. The
larches produce an entirely new sup
ply of bright green needles eacb
spring.
*
THE SUN, NEWBERRY, S. C„ FRIDAY, JANUARY 7, 1938
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Boy Sees With Gift Eye
HEADS ENGINEERS
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Frank Chabina pictured in Charity hospital at New Orleans, La., after
the bandages had been removed from his eye on which a new cornea had
been placed through the sacrifice si John Amos, sixty-year-old heart pa
tient from St. Joseph, La., who surrendered his own eye to save the
lad’s failing sight. Frank is able to see the surgeon’s hand held before
his eyes. The boy’s eyes had been hurt by a lime dust infection.
Col. John J. Kingman, who was
named by President Roosevelt as
assistant chief of army engineers
with the rank of brigadier general,
for a four year term. Colonel King-
man, currently on duty in San Fran
cisco as engineer in charge of river
and harbor improvements, is the
son of the late Brig. Gen. D. C.
Kingman.
A Sea of Backs Bows at Moslem Festival
■
Farther than the eye can see stretches this vast expanse of backs at Calcutta, India, during the Moslem
feast of Id-el-Firt. Massed multitudes of the faithful join in this public declaration of their faith, in an im
pressive part of an age-old religious ceremony.
Her Axe Is Death
to Slot Machines
Mrs. Dan Kite, of Alton, 111., who
is reported to have smashed 13 slot
machines in ten taverns with an
axe and her strong right arm. Be
cause of the Illinois attorney gen
eral’s ruling that there are no prop
erty rights in gambling devices, no
charges were placed against her.
Victims of Jap Bombings
This photograph, one of the first of the Nanking bombings, shows a
peasant carrying his dying child, an innocent victim of Japanese bomb
ing. Dazed and in terrible anguish, he is allowed by doctors to place
his child in an ambulance.
Ship Reaches Its Last Port of Call
mm gs
• IW ■
■
I 1 ^ 1 ‘ ' * 1
The freighter Ohioan, which went aground many months ago off Lands End near San Francisco, Calif., is
shown above after it was broken in two during one of the worst storms off the California coast in many years.
Because of the precarious position in which the ship was left, it was impossible for salvaging vessels to
approach close enough or for tugs to help float the vessel.
★★★★★★★★★★♦★★★★★♦★Hr
★ ★
i STAR *
DUST
★
★
★
i Mo?
★ ★
★★★By VIRGINIA VALE★★★
>vie
Radio *
Joel McCrae
E ACH year the Paramount
company can be counted on
to present a thrilling panorama
of American history in the mak
ing, and this year they offer
“Wells Fargo,” which in many
ways tops all previous efforts,
even last year’s “Plainsman,”
for sheer excitement.
The adventure, heroism and ro
mance of developing coast to coast
transportation haa
the breathless sweep
of fiction, doubly
stirring because we
know it is based on
fact. Joel McCrae
and Frances Dee are
the principals in the
interwoven romance,
and Bob Burns steps
out of character to
play a stalwart of
the early West. Bet
ter send the children
early to see this
one; they will want to stay all day.
And they’ll learn a lot of American
history in a painless and entertaining
fashion.
Greta Garbo stole quietly away
from Hollywood without even say
ing good-by to her closest friends
and sailed away to Sweden to stay
indefinitely. Her contraet with
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer calls for on
ly one more picture, and it is likely
that she will make that one In
England.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer want Tru
man Bradley, narrator on the CBS
Sunday Evening hour from Chi
cago to go into motion pictures, but
Mr. Bradley is reluctant to take a
chance so they have arranged what
is probably the most comprehensive
series of tests ever given a per
former. For one whole month Brad
ley will make daily film tests in
New York, flying back to Chicago
weekly for his Sunday evening stint.
A new combination of talent is put
ting over the “On Broadway” pro
gram hoard over NBC. Don John
son, knjwn to radio listeners as the
comic Professor Figgsbottle, is writ
ing the program and the leading
player is Alice Frost of the “Big
Sister” cast.
—+—
Fredric March and his wife,
Florence Eldridge, are running into
so much excitement on their stage
tour, they are half tempted to write
a scenario around their adventures.
Recently, the company became fran
tic when one of the leading actors
became ill just before a perform
ance. That persuasive Freddie
March, who really should have been
a S 'iesman, talked Kay Johnson
the ( ilm player into tackling the role
afti r a brief rehearsal. Miss John-
sor was traveling with the com
pany to be near her husband, John
Cromwell, who directed the play as
a sort of vacation from directing
spectacular pictures like “The Pris
oner of Zenda.”
. Anyone in Hollywood will tell you
that a motion-picture star is lucky
if he can hold on to
his popularity for
five years. One of
the lucky exceptions
is Richard Dix who
has just signed one
of the biggest con
tracts of his life, aft
er fifteen years of
uninterrupted popu
larity. R. K. O. plan
to make a big West
ern spectacle, some
thing on the order
of “Cimarron,” his
biggest success. Like Jack Holt,
another veteran, he gets better with
age.
—*—
Ethel Merman could have signed
a motion-picture contract any time
during the past four years, but the
popular blues singer preferred to
make just one picture every year or
so and then rush off to New York
and forget about it. In “Happy
Landing” however, she is so well
photographed and her voice so beau
tifully recorded that she has suc
cumbed to Twentieth Century-Fox
blandishments and will make pic
tures regularly for them from now
on. Ethel, whose perfect phrasing
has made her many a composer’s
favorite singer, thus adds one more
chapter to an inspiring career. She
was a stenographer, and a speedy
one, who used to get occasional en
gagements to sing at parties. Taking
a chance, she went into a small
night club at very low salary and
within a few weeks had a contract
to make Warner shorts.
ODDS AND ENDS-Sonja Heme has
organized an ice carnival company that
will tour aeveral cities while she waits
for the scenario of her next picture to he
written . . . Jessica Dragonette is being
tempted by motion picture offers again ...
Nobody can read Fred Allen’s scripts but
the comic himself. His writing is micro
scopic . . . Maureen O’Sullivan hurried
back from England to play with Norma
Shearer in “Marie Antoinette."
C Western Newspaper Union.
Richard Dix
All-Purpose Gloves
Crocheted Lengthwise
Nimble fingers are busily cro
cheting these lovely wooly gloves
that so closely follows the vogue.
They’re quick to do—two flat iden
tical pieces whipped together—
with a gusset for that wrist flare.
Use either yarn or string for end
less durability. Just wait tin you
see how easy they are to do! {a
pattern 5676 you will find
tions for making these gloves;
illustration of them and of
stitches used; material reqi
ments.
To obtain this pattern send 19
cents in stamps or coins (coins/
preferred) to The Sewing Circle t
Household Arts Dept., 259 W. 14tl,
Street, New York, N. Y. /
Please write your name, ay-
dress and pattern number plainl/.
Whitman'* Poor Start(
Walt Whitman, in 1855, at ^e
age of thirty-six, set up the (
for, and printed, the first edi
of “Leaves of Grass.” Whi{
threw his copy into the fire,
bulk of the edition, put on saij
a phrenologist’s studio,
scarcely a purchase. S
During the Civil war. Whitman
—to be near his brother—v«nt to
Washington and obtained clerk
ship in the Indian bureau < of the
department of the interior. But
in 1863, Secretary Harla/i, com
ing upon a copy oi “Leaves of
Grass,” read it with horror and
came to the prompt conclusion
that its author was not a fit and
proper person to woric under him,
and out went the “Good Gray
Poet.”
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