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McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, S. C., THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1937 “Death Over Miami" By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter H ERE’S a tale of the high seas, of “Sparks,” as the seamen call the radio operator who sits day and night over his set, picking up messages that may mean life or death to some hap less souls. In this case, thanks to Ray Hutchens of Long Island City, N. Y., it meant life to the victims of a hurricane which had just swept a path of death and destruction over Florida 1 Ray tells me the Ward Line passenger ship Sibor.ey, with him on board as chief wireless operator, and a chap named Milton Kitchen as junior, pulled out of Havana, bound for New York, on September 18, 1926. Just before they left the dock at noon, they received a hurricane warn ing from a station in New Orleans whose call letters were WNU. Now Ray says such warnings were a dime a dozen, and most of them came to exactly nothing. So when they ran into a gale with moderate sea on passing Morro Castle, they thought little of it. All unsuspecting they turned toward Key West. Somebody Called the Siboney. Ray tells us that at 10 p. m. that night he was on watch. Static was bad, the sea was running a bit more heavily, and the wind at gale force threw clusters of spray against the radio-room ports so forcibly it sound ed like hail. The passengers, their vacations over, were asleep or pre paring for bed, secure in the thought of the trained men in whose hands they had entrusted their welfare. Ray, watching with anxious eyes the rising storm, could think only of the helplessness of even these trained men when Nature goes on a rampage. Idly running through the 600-meter band, Ray found things dull, with little traffic. At ten-thirty, against a rasping background of static, some fellow called WRN (the Siboney, Ray’s vessel) slowly and repeatedly. “Shucks,” Ray thought to himself. “This’ll be some two-by- four tanker about to ask for a relay.” Unable to send their messages the full distance because of lack of power, the smaller ships occasionally asked help from a ship with better equipment. Ray was certainly justified in jumping to this conclusion, for what else would be sending a signal that was not the clear, musical note of the shore stations, but a weak, straggling sputter, “like someone shaking a bucket of pebbles,” as Ray puts it. But when this puny station signed WAX, which was the shore station at Miami, Florida, Ray was shocked into action! Miami, whose high, clear note always rang with ample volume through the thirty miles of static that separated them. Something was radically wrong, Ray was Relayed the Tale of Disaster to the World. sure of that. Hurriedly he snapped back a brief “Go ahead.” Ray knew the shore station must be able to hear the Siboney much better than Ray could catch the thin signal that trickled in from Miami. “Ham” Told of Miami Hurricane. And WAX, Miami, came back with the hottest row of dots and dashes Ray ever had directed toward him in his life! A piti ful appeal for food, clothing and medical supplies for the victims of the Miami hurricane, which had just swept a path of death and destruction across Florida! There was not a second to be lost! Out there in those waste stretches, battered and swept clean by the fury of a Nature gone mad, were help less men, women, yes and little children, their homes destroyed, their last link with the world this little ship’s radio room, where a horrified man sat over a delicate instrument and relayed the tale of their dis aster to the world. Ray jumped to his feet, ran into their quarters, slapped his junior. Kitchen, on the stomach. For the next twelve hours, while Kitchen stood by and tended the arc and spark transmitters, Ray alternately re ceived from Miami and sent to WSA, in East Moriches, Long Island. A pal of Ray’s, A1 Kahn, who was on the Orizaba, near Hatteras, helped to keep other ships’ signals off the air while Ray was slowly trying to pound through the thousand miles between the Siboney and WSA. Static Made It Almost Impossible. You fellow-adventurers who are “hams,” as the radio amateurs call themselves, will know what Ray was up against trying to pick up the faint code of WAX with static buzzing, sputtering, crackling, crashing, drowning out the almost inaudible signal that meant aid and succor to thousands of souls. Ray sat there glued to his chair for twelve hours, straining his ears to catch the pitiful appeal, receiving under almost superhuman conditions. “So bad was the static,” Ray tells me, “that each dot was a drop of sweat and each dash a moan.” Captain F. L. Miller hove the ship to so as to keep tfye oper ators within range of WAX’S low-power transmitter. He hail been asked to bring his ship into the harbor with food and medicine, bat the ship’s draft would not allow it even in calm weather. And all the time Ray was racking his brains wondering how the Miami operators, whose big station was obviously out of whack, were getting even this faint signal through. “Those boys certainly deserve credit,” Ray says proudly, “all their towers were down; the roof was blown from their quarters, power and telegraph lines were all out} they were sheltering one hundred men, women and children in the control- room, and even then they rigged up an emergency transmitter, pow ered with batteries stolen from wrecked cars, to get the first word of the hurricane to the outside world!* “So far as I know,” Ray says, “it was the first time a land station ever sent an SOS to a ship!” I guess we can sympathize with Ray when we imagine the feelings of that operator at WAX, who called the ship so slowly and prayerfully with that pathetic little sending shebang, knowing that the Siboney was due to pass and had continuous watch. Those boys got very little credit in the papers at the time, but Ray will always remember them with pride in his profession. <0—WNU Service. Ruins of Cuzco In Cuzco, Peru, once the metrop olis of the Incas, are massive ruins on a par with those found in Egypt. When the city was captured by Pizarro its temples were marvels of magnificence, says the Washing ton Post. The Temple of the Sun was covered with a roof of gold. The railroad to Cuzco skirts Lake Titicaca, an inland sea, 161 miles long, 60 miles wide and 12,500 feet above the level of the sea. The water never freezes, even when the tem perature drops to 30 degrees, and steel knives thrown into it do not rust. Varnish, Paint, Different What is the difference between pai::t and varnish? If you get paint on your hands it will be soft and oily—easy to remove with turpen tine or gasoline; the varnish will re quire more scrubbing. Paint is made by grinding pigments (colors) in drying oils. Varnish is made by melting transparent gums and mix ing the melted gums with similar drying oils, after these oils have been raised to a high temperature. Paint is opaque and is intended to hide surfaces. Varnish is usually transparent and is intended to re veal surfaces. The SUPREME COURT AND HOW IT WORKS “The Public Welfare* 9 By ROBERT MERRILL T HE Supreme court of the United States has frequent ly been called upon to act as umpire in cases where citizens protested that their health or their crops were endangered. A number of such appeals have resulted in the elimination of condi tions causing pollution of the water an affected community must drink, or contamination of the air it must breathe. In one instance a company made a practice of discharging waste ma terial into a river, whose waters, farther along the course, were utilized for irrigation purposes. A citizen whose crops and food supply were thus damaged obtained an injunction in a local court. The company appealed to a higher state court, which modified the decree to the fesaent which allowed it to oper ate if it provided facilities to pre vent the waste being carried down the river. An appeal was then car ried to the United States Supreme court, which affirmed the ruling and explained: “In giving a right to use the wat- eri of the public streams . . . the statute does not provide that such a user may send his waste material or debris down the stream to the destruction or substantial injury of the riparian rights of users of water below, and no such invasion of pri vate property rights should be in ferred or implied . . .” State Seeks Fresh Air. In another instance a state ap pealed to the Supreme court of the United States to enjoin certain in dustrial plants in a bordering state from polluting the air and endanger ing the citizens’ health and crops. The Supreme court granted the in junction, pointing out that a state has an interest in all the earth and air within its domain. “It has the last word,” said the opinion, “as to whether its moun tains shall be stripped of their for ests and its inhabitants shall breathe pure air.” On one occasion, a church in Washington, D. C., carried to the Supreme court its appeal against a railroad company which had erected an engine house and repair shop next to the church property. It pro tested that the noisu and smoke thus caused interfered with services and greatly inconvenienced worshipers. The court decided in favor of the church. Handles Small Cases. But the individual citizen, no mat ter how obscure, does not need the support of his state or any other organization to appeal to the Su preme court if his Constitutional rights have been infringed upon. Naturally the Supreme court ap pears most prominently in the news when it umpires cases involving prominent names or great organiza tions; but its work includes also the job of umpiring cases which, apart from their constitutional aspect, would seem of little importance. Here’s one case involving a $25 fine: The penalty was imposed by a District of Columbia police court on a resident charged with conspir ing to extort money. When the pris oner refused to pay, he was turned over to a United States marshal. He protested that the Constitu tion of the United States secured to him the right to be tried by a jury on the charge, and since that right was denied, the police court had no authority to impose a fine on him or to order him imprisoned until the fine was paid. Jury Trial Guaranteed. Because of the constitutional as pect involved, the case went finally to the Supreme court. The court agreed with the prisoner, and ex plained : “Except in that class or grade of offenses called petty offenses which, according to the common law, may be proceeded against summarily in any tribunal legally constituted for that purpose, the guarantee of an impartial jury to the accused in a criminal prosecution, conducted either in the name, or by or under the authority of, the United States, secures to him the right to enjoy that mode of trial . . . “In such cases a judgment of con viction, not based upon a verdict of guilty by a jury, is void.” © Western Newspaper Union. Named Lions for Kings During the time of King George II of England it was customary to name the lions in the tower menag erie after the reigning kings, and the fate of the royal beast was thought to be bound up with that of human majesty. Two years Ibe- fore the death of King George II, he suffered a serious illness, and was near death; but he rallied, and regained good health. A curious circumstance, illustrative of popu lar superstition, is mentioned in connection with this illness by Lord Chesterfield, and quoted by Earl Stanhoi i in his “History of Eng land”: “It was generally thought his majesty would have died, and for a very good reason—for the oldest lion in the tower, much about the king’s age, died a fortnight ago.” IMPROVED""'”” UNIFORM INTERNATIONAL S UNDAY I chool Lesson By REV. HAROLD L. LUNDQUIST. Dean of the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. @ Western Newspaper Union. Lesson for June 20 JOSEPH’S KINDNESS TO HIS KINDRED LESSON TEXT—Genesis 46:1-7, 28-30; 90: *4-26. GOLDEN TEXT—And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one an other, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32. PRIMARY TOPIC—When Joseph Saw HI* Father Again. JUNIOR TOPIC—Joseph Honoring His Fa ther. INTERMEDIATE AND SENIOR TOPIC— Kindness in the Family. young People and adult topic— Mutual Helpfulness In the Family. A happy ending—yes! Modern writers may look with disfavor on It (and perhaps rightly so, for most of them write about life apart from fellowship with God) but to those who trust God and who seek his will, the story of life has a bright and joyful conclusion. But someone may object that the lesson for today closes with the last words of the book of Genesis, which are “a coffin in Egypt.” Is that a happy ending? It is, because even that forbidding emblem of death pointed in faith toward the day when God was to keep his promise and bring his people into the promised land. Our lesson centers around the last of our patriarchs, Joseph, and his kindness to his father and his fami ly. The highest official in the land of Egypt (save for Pharaoh him self) proves his inherent greatness by forgetting position and power, except as they enable him to be a loving son and brother. We consider his kindness as it is centered in his devotion to God, shown forth in thoughtful provision for others, ex pressed in affectionate deeds, and as it imparted itself by faith to oth ers. I. Founded on Fellowship (Gen. 46:1-4). Jacob, having heard from his sons that Joseph was in Egypt, and hav ing thus learned of their treachery and deceit, came at last to realize that his beloved Joseph is alive. He has been urged to go to Egypt but he hesitates about leaving Canaan. How shall he know whether to be lieve in and respond to Joseph’s in vitation. He asks God, the One who is the joy and center of Joseph’s life, and of Jacob’s as well, and he has his answer. Real family life and devotion cen ter around a mutual fellowship with God. There may be little else to share, but “little is much when God is in it.” Has God been honored in your home? Has He been made the center of family life? These are vital questions. II. Evidenced by Thoughtfulness (vv. 5-7). Joseph had arranged for Pharaoh to send wagons to bring his aged father, the women, and the little ones. Many men in our day glory in be ing “hard-boiled.” In their relent less pursuit of fame and riches they ignore and even trample on the members of their own families. They are ashamed of the broken bodies, the humble apparel, the un educated speech of their parents, fearing lest their new-found friends in the circle of wealth and position may ridicule them. There is a crude but apt expression that describes such persons as “stuffed shirts.” HI. Manifested in Love (w. 28-30). Joseph kissed his father whom he had gone out to meet, and held him close and wept for joy. Again he showed his true greatness by being his natural self. We are not all demonstrative in showing our affection. Furthermore, we would not plead for more of that sham public expression of affection which is so distasteful to right-think ing people. But may we not suggest that there is room for improvement in our loving consideration for our kindred. Let us ask ourselves how long it is since we did something to show that we really love our mother, our father, or a faithful wife, son, or daughter? How long is it since you wrote home to moth er, or went home to visit? IV. Imparted by Faith (50:24-26). Jacob had been gathered to his fathers; time had gone on its re lentless way, and Joseph is about to die. What shall be the heritage to his family? Money, property, posi tion? No; he leaves them something infinitely more valuable—a forward- looking faith that will keep alive in iheir hearts the expectation that God will in due season bring them into their own land. Joseph had spent most of his years in Egypt, he had attained high position and great honor, but he never lost his vision of the promised land. He imparts to them by faith that hope. Hope Ah, what thoughtful, loving pro vision God hath made for us in the gift of the angel of Hope! There is no path so dark but we may see the glimmer of her shining wings, no misfortune so heavy but her helpful hand is outstretched to us, and her •mile still ready to cheer and en courage us. The Natural Tone Peace is the natural tone of a svell-regulated mind at one with it- *elf.—Humboldt. '^'OW, Milady, that you’ve seen all three, which will you choose, the lovely dance frock, an easy-to-sew runabout model, or a slick all around the clock dress to flat ter your every move and moment? It’s a personal question but one you’ll surely want to toy with since Sew-Your-Own makes the answer so easy. The romantic fashion at the left will make memorable occasions of your summer parties as only a lovely appearance can. Its two pieces are young, cool and streamlined. For the Miss whose interest centers about matinee go ings-on, there’s a dashing shorter style—it differs only in length, and either will be picturesque in mar quisette, dimity, or organdie. A Tip for Tea Time. When you’re keeping up with the Joneses, wear this stylish all occasion dress. It will do great things for you socially, and, fig uratively speaking, it will cut inches from those high spots and make you feel pounds lighter. Think of what that means to chic and comfort when things get hot out your way. Dark sheer crepe is the material that lends top charm to this creation. Easy to sew and always ready to go is this new spectator frock for young women and those who want to turn back the clock. With this number handy there’s no need to pause for reflection about what to wear. And that holds good whether you’re bound for sports, business, or society. It is becom ing as a sun tan, as simple to sew as a dress can be, and a cinch to launder. Why not make a car bon copy for the morning after? Remember summer chic depends upon the company your wardrobe keeps. Be sure it’s amply suik plied with cool convenient Sew- Your-Owns! The Patterns. Pattern 1291 is designed in sizew 12 to 20 (30 to 38 bust). Size 14 requires 6 yards of 35 or 39 inch material. Size 14, walking length, requires 5*6 yards. Pattern 1847 is designed in sizes 36 to 52. Size 38 requires 4% yards of 39 inch material. Pattern 1279 is designed in s&es 32 to 49. Size 34 requires 4Va yards of 35 inch material. Ribbon for belt requires 1 yard. Send your order to The Sewing Circle Pattern Dept., Room 1020,, 211 W. Wacker Dr., Chicago, HL Price of patterns, 15 cents (in coins) each. © Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service. Face Opportunity I Needed at Times Don’t let opportunity stare you A little bit of dynamite is an in the back instead of the face. I elevating thing. t CHEW LONG BILL NAVY TOBACCO E-KO EDGE JAR 20c with your dealer’s name ^or a Trial RUBBERS United Stains Rubbnr Products, Inc., Room 604,1790 Sroodwgy, wii.u y vur ucaicr 9 name ivr a a nai Package of 48 genuine Pe-Ko Jar, Rings; sent prepaid. Rubber Company iour roum-qouR stores OT „ ^ f I Our community includes the farm homes surrounding the town. The town stores are there for the accommodation and to serve the people of our farm homes. The merchants who advertise “specials” are mer chants who are sure they can meet ail competition in both quality and prices.