McCormick messenger. (McCormick, S.C.) 1902-current, June 02, 1938, Image 6
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McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, S. C.. THURSDAY. JUNE 2, 1938
en of the
ounted
by Captain
G. Elliott • Nightingale
Copyright. WNU
AND SO ONE THING LED
TO ANOTHER, UNTIL—
W^HEN old Tim Jillis blew his
* * brains out with a.rifle, he also
set off a box of fireworks that
jumped about hither and yon and
hit quite a few people. In fact, the
body of the suicide was barely cold
in death before an unsuspecting citi
zen was. tarred and feathered, and
the latter event caused another ex
plosion because it forced a sergeant
to desert from the Royal Northwest
Mounted Police. At any rate, let’s
get back to the beginning.
Tim Jillis was a lazy, good-for-
nothing sort, and a booze-fighter, to
boot, all of which kept his hard
working wife, and his two fine chil
dren on the outermost edge of desti
tution and want. Neighbors did all
they could, of course, for the sake of
the youngsters, and just when things
were about as bad as they could be,
Mrs. Jillis had a bright idea. She
would change the house a bit and
take in a lodger, someone who
would pay for good food and a warm
room. With the income from the
boardef, she could make it all right,
she felt sure, and soon a Charlie
Brown was part of the household.
Now Brown was a sober, hard-work
ing chap, and when he saw the gen
eral economic conditions in the Jil
lis household, he dug down into his
pockets and provided plenty of food,
some necessary clothing, and a nice
pile of fuel.
Naturally, the heart of Mrs. Jillis
was about to burst from sheer grat
itude, and she put herself out to
make Brown feel right at home.
His slightest wish was law, and the
Jillises began to emerge from desti
tution to a fair measure of comfort
and well-being. All of this, strange
to say, aroused the anger and dis
pleasure of the no-account husband
and father who spent his days in
local barrooms bewailing the fact
that Brown the lodger was stealing
his wife and gradually breaking up
the Jillis home.
Instead of shooting the lodger, as
most people had expected, Jillis
stuck the rifle barrel in his own
mouth, pressed the trigger, and
scattered his brains all over the
bedroom walls. The coroner and
the Mounted Police soon realized
that it was a plain case of suicide,
and the case would have been closed
right then had not a gang of half a
dozen masked men barged into the
Jillis home and seized Charlie
Brown, the lodger. They took him
to a lonely spot and there they
tarred and feathered him from cap
to boots. They drove him back to
the tiny settlement and threw him
into the lobby (?) of the local hotel
which was hardly more than an
ordinary six or seven-room house.
Hours later Brown found his way
back to his room in the Jillis home,
and about the only clue he had as to
the identity of his kidnapers was
that all the talking and all the or
ders had been spoken by a man
with a distinctive western drawl
such as was common along the
Montana boundary.
Things quieted down, and Brown
stayed on at the Jillis place. And
then, months later he was sitting on
a hotel veranda in Lethbridge, Al
berta, when his ears caught up a
voice that he would never forget as
long as he lived. He knew he had
found the leader of the kidnap gang,
and in half an hour the owner of the
distinctive western drawl was
breaking down under stiff question
ing on the part of Men of the Mount
ed. Later he admitted leading the
gang, and was held for trial. And
then, while assembling all the nec
essary data and information for the
trial, the inspector of the Mounted
Police in the district made a most
startling and distressing discovery.
Five of the six gangsters were ac
counted for, and the inspector, while
moving heaven and earth to find out
the identity of the sixth, found that
the much-wanted lawbreaker was
one of his own sergeants, a man
with years of creditable service be
hind him, and a man who had al
ways been above reproach in every
way. At any rate, perhaps a Wt
enraged by this discovery, the in
spector did all he could to make a
strong unshakable case against the
sergeant. But, as the days passed,
it appeared that the inspector was
more hell-bent on “getting” that
sergeant than anyone else, and just
when conditions looked bad for the
three-striper, he turned up missing.
The fact is, the tiny settlement
was loyal to the sergeant, and while
the inspector was fussing and fum
ing over evidence and court pro
cedure the sergeant’s many friends
dug into their pockets, made up a
sizable purse of money, and staked
the sergeant to a midnight getaway
on one of the finest and fastest
horses in the region. Moreover,
while the inspector was looking up
the law on this and that, a fair
sized escort of mounted citizens
were escorting the sergeant over
the border into Montana.
. And . . . that’s how one thing led
to another, until . . . well ... . it
was difficult to find out just where
this all started and when and where
it finished. At any rate, it added a
few gray hairs to the inspector’s
scalp. No doubt about th»*
Ttoyd
ADVENTURERS’ CLUB
HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES
OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELFI
«<
. 99
Death by Proxy
By FLOYD GIBBONS
Famous Headline Hunter
H ello everybody:
There’s only one thing I know that’s less profitable than
being a burglar, and that’s just posing as one. And Distin
guished Adventurer Willard G. Stanton of Bloomfield, N. J.,
ought to agree with me there. Once upon a time, when Bill was
a youngster of sixteen, he tried that little stunt. Not purposely,
of course. Bill’s intentions were perfectly O. K. But it doesn’t
make any difference what your intentions are. If you look like a
burglar, or if you act like a burglar, first thing you know some
body is going to think you ARE a burglar and treat you ac
cordingly.
Back in 1907, when this adventure happened to Bill, he lived in an old-
fashioned apartment house in Brooklyn. At least it would look old-
fashioned today. At that time it was probably the last word in apart
ment houses. It had a stairway running up the center of the building,
and there were two apartments to the floor. The doors of the living rooms
opened on the stair landing, and the outer doors were fitted with ground
glass panels. The glass was opaque. You couldn’t exactly see through
it. But when you were on the inside looking out you could tell when some
one was at the door, because you could see a shadow of a human figure
against the glass.
Remember those panels. They’ve got a lot to do with the story.
Burglars Alarmed the Old Ladies.
Bill’s family had an apartment on the fourth and top floor of that
building. Across the hall lived two old ladies—retired school teachers—
one of whom was slightly deaf. Remember that deaf old lady, too.
k
p
77
r
i
Bullets Whizzed Over Bill’s Head.
Between her and the glass panels, Old Lady Adventure managed to cook
up quite a thrill for Bill Stanton.
About three o’clock one November morning, Bill was awakened out
of a sound sleep by a loud, insistent pounding. As he came out of a
half-doze, he realized that the pounding came from the wall, on the other
side of which the two old ladies slept. Something was wrong in their
apartment! Bill jumped out of bed and went into his own living room.
Then he saw what the trouble was.
On the ground glass panels of the door leading to the hall he could
see two shadowy figures. They were over by the door of the old ladies’
apartment and they seemed to be trying to jimmy the lock. So that was
it! Burglars, trying to get in next door! The old ladies had heard
them and pounded on the wall to attract Bill’s attention.
Bill called out, “Who’s there?” and began rattling the door
knob. The two figures moved noiselessly to the stairs and be
gan to descend. Bill was sixteen, and impetuous. He ran out of
his apartment and started to follow the two men down the stairs.
“Right there,” he says, “is where my adventuring career
started.”
Bill Was in a Tight Place.
Bill followed the crooks down two flights of stairs, but they were too
fast for him. He was in pajamas, and he couldn’t very well dash out into
the street after them anyway. Not on a cold night in November. He
turned around and went slowly back up the stairs.
Bill got to the top and put his hand on the doorknob. The door was
locked. In his haste to follow the two men he had slammed it behind
him. In his pajamas and without a key in his pocket, it looked as if
he was going to have some trouble getting back in. He stood for a
moment considering his plight, and then, suddenly he heard a voice
coming from the next apartment.
It was one of the old ladies—the deaf one—and her tone was omi
nous. “If you don’t go away,” she yelled, “I’ll shoot.”
All at once Bill realized what a tight situation he was in. The old lady
could see his shadow through the glass door and thought he was one of the
departed burglars. He knew she kept a gun in her apartment and didn’t
have any doubt that she would do just what she threatened to do.
Shot At by a Deaf Woman.
“I thought I had a good pair of lungs,” says Bill, “and 1
screamed back: 'Don’t shoot. It’s me.* But I didn’t count on
that old lady being deaf. Before I had a chance to get in an
other word I heard a loud report and a bullet came crashing
through the door. It was followed by two more. Then I dropped
flat on the floor, and while I lay there, three more shots imbed
ded themselves in the wall over my head.”
The shots stopped then, but Bill lay right where he was, afraid to
stir lest the slightest motion bring more of that hot lead his way. Then,
inside his own apartment, he heard his mother open a window and
start screaming for the police. Still Bill stayed where he was. Courage
is one thing, but when a panic-stricken old lady starts blazing away right
and left with a revolver, there isn’t any sense in giving her a mark to
shoot at.
Bill lay right where he was until the police came. Then he got up
again. He looked himself over and was relieved to find that he hadn’t
been hit by any of those wild bullets, but he found an ominous little
hole in the sleeve of his pajamas that showed just how close he had
come to having a funeral instead of just an adventure. “And now
adays,” says Bill, “when there is any burglar hunting to be done, I do
it by telephone.”
Copyright.—WNU Service.
Use of the Oregon Boot
Once Oregon was famous for a
contrivance that was held in pardon
able distaste by prisoners who hap
pened to find themselves confined
within the cold gray walls of the
state penitentiary. The Oregon boot,
they called it, and it was used as
an efficient but not altogether hu
mane method of keeping prisoners
from dashing off on their own.
Home of Copernicus
Torun in Poland is the birthplace
of Copernicus, the great astron
omer. The charming old city has
a statue to his memory and visitors
may enter the home he had 400
years ago.
Our Faith in Human Nature
“Our faith in human nature grows
so scant,” said Hi Ho, the sage of
Chinatown, “that we soon arrive at
the belief that everybody who is or
dinarily polite iB trying to deceive
us.”
Compelled to Kill Squirrels
The large number of squirfels
were such a menace in the early
days that the Ohio legislature passed
a law compelling each person to kill
a certain number of them each
year. The number was to be de
termined by each township board of
trustees, and those who failed to
fill their quota were subject to
a fine.
Sausage Tree Native of Africa
The sausage tree (Kigelia pinna-
ta) is a native of Africa. It has
rough pinnate leaves and peculiar
flowers which hang suspended by
long peduncles. From each flower
a large fruit develops which resem
bles a sausage.
Reference to Shaving in Bible
There are many references to
shaving in the Bible. In Genesis,
41:14, we find that Joseph shaved
himself before going into the pres
ence of Pharaoh.
-FAMOUS STORIES-
King Arthur’s
Death Told in
r TennysonTale
By ELIZABETH C. JAMES
IN THE last days of King Arthur,
A his men were led in revolt
against him by the traitorous
knight, Sir Modred. Warfare had
continued many months and the
time had now come for the last
struggle. Among those faithful to
the king was the knight. Sir Bedi-
vere, now constant companion to
the lonely and aged king.
Overlooking the camps which
were arrayed for battle, the king
thought sorrowfully of his knights
whom he was now fighting. His
heart was heavy as the battle be
gan, relates Lord Tennyson in his
story, “The Death of King Arthur.”
On every side there was strife to
the death until the field was strewn
with men. At the point of Excali-
bur, King Arthur’s famous sword,
Sir Modred met his
end. But, alas, King
Arthur was sorely
wounded. Carefully
Sir Bedivere carried
his king off the field.
But King Arthur
knew that now he
was to die.
Calling his loyal
knights to him, he
requested Sir Bedi
vere to carry Excal-
ibur down to the
lake front and throw
it into the water.
The knight thought this a strange
request, but he lifted the treasured
sword and went his way to the lake.
Standing beside the water, Sir
Bedivere thought of the needless
waste of so many jewels and of so
much beauty and he hid Excalibur
in a tree. When Sir Bedivere stood
again before him, King Arthur asked
what he had seen when the threw
the sword into the water. Sir Bedi
vere answered, “The rippling of the
waves.”
“Betrayer!” cried the king. “Do
as I bid you!”
Standing again beside the water
the knight thought: the king is ill
and does not know what he says, so
I will hide the sword. Accordingly,
Elizabeth
James
“BEAUTIFUL” LIFE
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, lived a
life as beautiful and unreal in its
romanticism as that of any hero
in his King Arthur stories.
The drowning of Arthur Hal-
lam, Tennyson’s college friend
who understood and encouraged
the sensitive poet, caused Tenny
son to suffer a nervous collapse
and to live ten years in retire
ment. At the end of that time he
presented for publication “In
Memoriam,” an elegy to Arthur
Hallam, a poem said to have
brought more comfort to sorrow
ing people than any other poem.
Tennyson was not wealthy, and
he and his sweetheart wanted to
leave the path of his life open
for writing instead of trying to
earn a less precarious livelihood,
so they waited many years be
fore marriage was possible.
Speaking of his marrying Emily
Sellwood he said, “On the day I
married her, the peace of God
entered into my soul.”
At the death of Wordsworth,
Tennyson was made Poet Laure
ate of England, having long en-
jOyed the friendship of Queen
Victoria. After that he was so
besieged by sightseers, that he
was forced to move to the Isle
of Wight, which place is now
famous for having been his
home. Tennyson died in 1892, at
the age of eighty-three.
he once more placed it safely away.
The second time the king asked
what he had seen and the knight
gave the same answer as before,
“The rippling of the waves.”
With great effort King Arthur
cried, “If you do not do as I com
mand, I will kill you with my own
hands!”
Sir Bedivere ran to the lake,
wheeled the sword high, and with
all his might, hurled it into the
lake. Instantly an arm clothed in
rich apparel rose from the lake,
caught the sword, brandished it
three times and drew Excalibur un
der the waves. When the king had
heard what Sir Bedivere had seen,
his soul was satisfied. Then he made
his last request of his knight, that
Sir Bedivere would assist him to
reach the shores of the lake.
Old Order Changeth.
When the king stood beside the
waters, there appeared in the dis
tance a barge. Nearer and nearer
it came, until the richness of the
black draperies could be seen.
Three queens weeping in lamenta
tion stood on the bow looking toward
King Arthur, Sir Bedivere supported
his king, until the outstretched arms
of the queens assisted King Arthur
to take his place on the barge.
Slowly the barge began to leave
the shore. Standing alone as King
Arthur moved into the distance, Sir
Bedivere cried out, “I am left alone!
What shall I do?”
Kindly answered the king, “The
old order changeth, giving place to
new—Pray for me, for more things
are wrought by prayer than this
world dreams of ... ”
So ended the life of King Arthur,
for many years ruler over the
Round Table.
© B<;U Syndicate.—WNU Service.
}OP> SEW
4^” Ruth Wyeth Spears <^3^
D
4*
sty if
— * ** -
OOCfF^
Bright Embroidered Borders for Towels
T'HESE borders you will find
easy to make. All six strands of
six-strand mercerized embroidery
thread are used. Crease 1% inch
hems first. Draw threads of the
material to make straight guide
lines for the embroidery. Sew the
hems by hand after the embroid
ery is done.
The top border is royal blue and
turkey red. To make the straight
lines at the sides, couch blue
thread in place with red as at A.
The loop stitches along the edge
are made as at B. The vertical
loops are red and the smaller hori
zontal loops blue. The fish-bone
stitch in the center is made in red
as at C.
The lower border is light yellow
and orange. The edge lines are
yellow, couched in place with or
ange. The alternating groups of
yellow and orange ray stitches
along the edge are made as at D.
For the center chain make evenly
spaced yellow stitches in double
thread as at E, then weave orange
thread through them as at F.
Readers who have received
their copy of Mrs. Spears’ book on
Sewing, for the Home Decorator,
will be pleased to know that Book
No. 2 is now ready. Ninety em
broidery stitches are illustrated;
fabric repairing; also table set
tings; gifts; and many things to
make for yourself and the chiL
dren. If you like hand work you
will be pleased with this unique
book of complete directions for
every article illustrated. Price 25
cents postpaid (coin preferred).
Ask for Book 2 and address Mrs.
Spears, 210 S. Desplaines St., Chi
cago, 111.
For Chic and for Comfort
N EITHER of these new designs
will be much trouble to make
—each is accompanied by a de
tailed sew chart—and both of
them will give increasing joy and
satisfaction all summer long. The
afternoon dress is so smart and
so becoming that you’ll enjoy hav
ing it in more than one version,
e
1910
and as for the little play suit,
every youngster deserves half a
dozen!
Pretty Afternoon Dress.
A perfect style for afternoon
teas, club meetings and lunch
eons, delightfully cool to wear,
with lines that flatter the figure.
Shirring at the shoulders, full,
short sleeves and the built-up
waistline emphasize the slimness
of your hips, and make the dress
very graceful. Make it up in
georgette, chiffon, voile or hand
kerchief linen.
Tot’s Play Suit.
It’s a diagram pattern, that you
can make in a jiffy. Just a little
sturdy cotton—and a little bright
butterfly—and you have the
cutest, most comfortable play out
fit in the world for two-to-eight
activities. Square-necked, scal
loped all round, and conveniently
tied at the side. Choose gingham,
percale, pique, linen or broadcloth
for this.
The Patterns.
1517 is designed for sizes 34, 36,
38, 40, 42, 44 and 46. Size 36 re
quires 4% yards of 39-inch mate
rial.
1910 is designed for sizes 2, 4, 6
and 8 years. Size 4 requires 1%
yards of 35-inch material for the
apron; % yard for the panties;
3% yard braid or bias binding to
trim as pictured.
Send your order to The Sewing
Circle Pattern Dept., Room 1020,
211 W. Wacker Dr., Chicago, 111.
Price of patterns, 15 cents (in
coins) each.
MEN LOVE GIRLS
WITH PEP
If you are peppy and full of fun, men will In
vite you to dances and parties. BUT, if you
are cross, lifeless and tired, men won’t be
interested. Men don’t like “quiet” virla.
For three generations one woman has told
another how to go “smiling through” with
Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound. It
helps Nature tone up the system, thus lessen
ing the discomforts from the Minctional dis
orders which women must endure.
Make a note NOW to get a bottle of world-
famous Pinkham’s Compound today WITH
OUT FAIL from your druggist—more than a
million women have written in letters re
porting benefit.
Why not try LYDIA E. PINKHAM’S
VEGETABLE COMPOUND?
S PR
AIMS
are quickly relieved with
Yager’s Liniment. A Doctor
writes that he uses it for back
aches, sprains and rheumatic
pains. Buy Yager’s Liniment
today. Let it help you rub aches
and pains away. In use over 50
years. 25c and 50c bottles.
YAGER’S LINIMENT
Weighty Words
Gentle words fall lightly, but
they have great weight.
fOJ9 BURNS
IROLIN
SNOW WHITE PETROLEUM JELLY
Everything you want
in NEW YORK!
# is right around this quiat, congenial hotel.
Rooms with bath from $2.50 single, $4
double. FAMOUS FOR GOOD FOOD.
Woodstock
43rd St. East of Broadway
TIMES SQUARE NEW YORK
CHEW LONG BILL NAVY TOBACCO
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