The sun. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1937-1972, August 25, 1939, Image 7
THE SUN, NEWBERRY, S. C- FRIDAY. AUGUST 25, 1939
ADVENTURERS’ CLUB
HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES
OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELFI
“Wild Night Alloat”
H ello everybody:
You know, sometimes Old Lady Adventure puts you
through the paces in a second or two, and then lets up on you.
I’ve told you boys and girls a couple of yarns, at least, that
didn’t last more than five or six seconds at the most. But there
are also times when the old girl with the thrill bag seems to
take delight in teasing her victims, as a cat would tease a mouse
—tossing one bit of hard luck after another at them, until she
has them worn down and ready to quit.
Floyd Smith of Chicago could tell you a yarn like that. A
tale of terror for hours on end. And as a matter of fact, Floyd
will tell you that story. For we’ve got him here with us at the
Adventurers’ campfire tonight and he’s all ready to go.
It’s a story of the World war—and, incidentally, Floyd
wants me to announce that if any of the three fellows who
went through it with him should read this story—well—he sure hopes
they’ll drop him a line.
The scene of this yarn is Brest, France, where Floyd was attached
to the U. S. naval air station. He was one of a crew of four on a speed
boat—the type of craft that is known as a gig in the navy—and it was
one day in August, 1918, that the gig and its crew was sent out for an
all-night battle with Old Lady Adventure.
Men Ordered Taken Off Pensacola.
It was about eight o’clock in the evening when the officer of the day
brought their orders. The U. S. S. Pensacola had weighed anchor a short
time before and was putting out to sea. Aboard her was a 15-man detail
from the air station, which had been helping to unload the ship. They
were to have been taken off before the Pensacola sailed, but the orders
had been mixed up, and there they were, getting a ride they were never
intended to have. The gig’s orders were to catch the Pensacola and
take the men off.
Says Floyd: “We took out after the ship, which was already
in the narrow channel that leads from the bay to the open sea. In
about 10 minutes we were a hundred yards astern of the Pensa
cola, when suddenly our motor quit. Well—it goes without saying
that we did not catch the Pensacola. As luck would have it
the tide was going out, and it swept us out to sea.”
The water out there was too deep for the anchor line, so they kept
right on drifting. It was growing dark by that time, so no one ashore
saw their predicament. With no means to stop the boat from drifting,
Speaking of Sports—
Old Man Grove,
39, Still King in
Portside Ranks
By ROBERT McSHANE
DOBERT MOSES GROVE, who
came out of the hills of Lona-
coning, Md., back in 1920, is pitch
ing his fifteenth season of major
league baseball.
Lefty was 20 years old when he
joined the Martinsburg team of the
Blue Ridge league. In 1921 he went
to Baltimore, where he won 108
games in five years. In 1925, when
he was 25 years old, he went to
Philadelphia, where in his first two
years he won 23 games and lost 25
for the Athletics—an unimpressive
record, but one which taught him
how to pitch with his head as well
as his portside arm.
The Lonaconing lancer’s life-time
major league record, brought up to
date, is likely to stand for many a
year. At this writing Grove has
pitched 3,392 innings in 565 games.
He has won 282 of those games as
against 126 losses for a percent
age of .691. On May 3, 1938, he
joined the list of pitchers who struck
ROBERT MOSES GROVE
out 2,000 or more batters. His pres
ent strike-out total is 2,117. In that
time he has given up 3,474 hits and
1,080 bases on balls.
In a four-year stretch, 1928-1931,
Grove won 103 games and lost 23
for an average of .836. In 1931 he
won 31 games and lost only four.
This is the best single season pitch
ing record in modern baseball.
In a seven-year span, 1927-1933,
he won 172 games and lost 54 for a
percentage of .761. Grove’s record
is one of the greatest of all time,
and is especially impressive in view
of the fact that his pitching was
done with a lively ball.
those four lads worked frantically, trying to get the motor started again,
but they only made matters worse. They ran the batter down and
then they were left without lights. i
The Gig Drifts Slowly Out to Sea. '
“By this time,” says Floyd, “it was pitch dark and it had started to
rain. There was nothing to do but drift, so we drifted.”
And under that casual statement, there lies a world of terror.
Those four lads—every one of them—knew what it meant to
drift out to sea. If they were lucky they might be picked up by
a passing steamer. But on the other hand, it was all too easy
to drift unsighted for days on end, and finally perish of thirst and
exposure.
“We drifted until about 2 a. m.,” Floyd says, “and then the sea began
to get rough and we really had something to worry about, for there were
mine fields all about the entrance of the harbor and w’e figured we had
drifted into them. The mines were moored 12 feet below the surface,
but with the high swells bobbing us up and down, we stood a good chance
of hitting one of them. We began holding our breaths.”
About an hour later, they sighted a blinker light—and that was the
signal for more panic.
“It was too high to be on a ship,” says Floyd, “so it must have
been on a cliff. Were we going to be washed against this cliff?
We all prepared for the worst. We put on life preservers and let
out the anchor. But the anchor didn’t hold. The boat still drifted.
After a while we had drifted to a place where we could see
lights in the distance. Could it be true that we were in the
channel, heading back toward Brest?”
Boat Drifts Back to Starting Point.
Speed Ball Artist
Lefty started out as a fire ball
pitcher. No other southpaw could
touch his fast ball, and he depended
largely upon it. He was strictly a
speed ball artist. But even the great
est pitchers can’t go on forever
smoking them over, and he finally
felt his speed slipping. Grove then
developed a curve ball and a change
of pace. He studied his batters,
learned their weaknesses, and out
smarted them. He saved his arm,
| and when the occasion demands, can
still summon plenty of speed, which
he uses sparingly.
Tom Yawkey, owner of the Boston
Red Sox, bought Grove from Connie
Mack in 1934, paying slightly more
than $100,000 for him. Lefty had re
ported at the training camp with a
dead arm, and the experts were
congratulating Mack for a smart
operator. Grove wasn’t much help
to the Sox that first season, his arm
failed to respond. He finished the
season with a record of eight won
and eight lost.
And that’s just where they were. The boat had drifted right back
to where it had started.
Luck? Sure, it was. But those lads still had the worst of their ad
venture to go through. Back on shore, someone had spotted them. The
blinker on the cliff was signaling, but in a code they couldn’t understand.
“Would they open fire on us?” says Floyd. “That’s what we
were afraid of. They kept searchlights on us until we were half
way through the channel, and then we saw a swift-moving vessel
coming in our direction. When it got with a hundred yards of
us I could see that it was a torpedo boat. Its searchlight beamed
on us, and it came straight for us.”
Straight at them it came—full speed ahead, and with no intention of
Stopping. It just grazed the stern of the boat—but with a force that spun
it around and almost knocked its four occupants overboard.
“By the time we had come to our senses,” says Floyd, “it
had turned and was coming back to take another ram at us. All
fou/ of us began yelling at the top of our lungs, ‘Americans—
Americans!’ ”
The boat came on. It came within a few feet of the gig, and
then, suddenly, it turned sharply aside. The boys kept right on
yelling, “Americans,” then from the French torpedo boat came
the answer, “Oui, oui.”
“We told them our engine had broken down,” says Floyd, “and they
said they thought we were a German submarine. They towed us back
to our station, and when we were ashore again we all agreed it was one
night we would long remember.”
(Released by Western Newspaper Union.)
[ay-Pauncefort Treaty Protects the Panama Canal
The Panama canal was built by
the U. S. and is owned and con
trolled by this country. Both Amer
ican and foreign vessels using it pay
tolls for the privilege. The United
States by treaty with the republic
of Panama has a perpetual lease
of the Canal Zone and has exclusive
control of it. According to the
terms of the Hay-Pauncefdrt treaty
of 1901, which prepared the way for
its construction, the canal “shall be
free and open to the vessels of com
merce and of war of all nations ob
serving these rules, on terms of
entire equality." The treaty stipu
lates that a belligerent’s war ves
sels may have transit through the
canal with the least possible delay
and withput taking on stores or
troops. Panama has no right to
take possession of the canal and is
not likely to undertake to gain it by
force.
The following year Mack wasn’t so
sure he had put over a good deal.
Lefty was back in form, winning 20
games for Boston and losing 12.
His career seemed ended again
last year when his arr" went dead
while he was pitching against De
troit. But once more he returned
to form, and through the early part
of August this year, had won 11
games and lost two. Not at all
bad considering that the crepe-hang
ers saw the end of his big league
pitching days back in 1934.
Great Portsiders
The former Blue Ridge lad is one
if the most consistent, reliable play
ers in the game today. Unlike Rube
Waddell, one of the greatest left
handers, he has developed no eccen
tricities. Rube’s screwball charac
teristics kept him from being the
greatest.
The 1939 season is seeing a south
paw famine. Right now it looks as
if Robert Moses Grove, the 39-year-
old gray-haired Sunday pitcher, will
be the only one to win more than
15 games.
Other left handers in both leagues
are having more than their share of
difficulties. Gomez, Vander Meer,
Lee, Hubbell, Krakauskas, Melton,
Whitehill—in fact, all of them, are
running far below expectations.
So chances are that the Lonacon-
ing lancer, who has been pitching on
borrowed time for five years, will be
the only southpaw to come through
with a creditable record when the
1939 season is ended.
Sport Shorts
A BASEBALL umpire not only
can throw a player out of the
park, but has the power to put spec
tators out, too . . . Designer George
Pocock built all 19 of the racing
shells used in the Poughkeepsie re
gatta . . . Hugh Duffy, whose .4311
batting average is still an all-time
major league record, often wonders
what his average would have been
if he had batted against the rabbit
ball . . . Lefty Go
mez recently ex
pressed the senti
ment of the Yanks
regarding the Na
tional league race:
“The pennant won’t
be cinched in that
league until the club
in first place has a
seven - game lead
with only six games
left to play.” . . .
Bob Pastor says he
bet $2,500 of his’ own
money that he’ll beat Joe Louis . . .
Light harness racing devotees of
New Jersey are discussing the possi
bility of pari-mutuel machines at
county fairs, but special legislative
action will be necessary . . . Notre
Dame’s football team will open with
Purdue at Notre Dame September
30 in what shapes up as the out
standing first-day game . . . Tom
Yawkey, Boston Red Sox owner, has
spiked rumors that his club will
train next spring in Hawaii. The
club will return, he says, to Sara
sota, Fla. ... If Maxie Baer at
tempts a comeback it will be against
his wife’s wishes. She wants him
to quit the ring . . . Max Schmeling
has signed to defend his European
crown in a 15-round bout against
Walter Neusel October 1 at Dort
mund stadium in Berlin . . .Joe
McCarthy believes that Babe Dahl-
gren, successor to Lou Gehrig, would
improve greatly as a first sacker if
he were more aggressive . . . the
Burnt Mills, N. J., polo team is a
complete family affair, featuring
Benedict, Collister, Frank and Rob
ert Johnson . . . There are eight
pitchers on the Cincinnati roster and
seven of them have beaten the Bos
ton Bees . . . Jack Hurley, who
managed Billy Petrolle, the Fargo
Express, for years, thinks he is
managing his successor in 135-pound
Billy Marquart . . . Augie Galan
played 154 games without hitting into
a double play in 1935—a major
league record.
Billiard Champs
'T'HE National Billiard association,
now busy on plans which call for
national amateur tournaments in
pocket billiards, straight-rail and
three-cushion, recently announced
its recognized world’s champions in
those three fields of billiard play.
Welker Cochran of San Francisco,
Calif., is recognized as the king of
the balkline billiard players. Ac
cording to Clyde A. Storer, presi
dent of the very active N. B. A.,
Cochran won the last world’s balk
line tournament sponsored by the
association and still is regarded as
champion by that official group.
The N. B. A. places the pocket bil
liard crown on the brow of Jimmy
Caras of Wilmington, Del., while the
three-cushion title belongs to Joe
Chamaco of Mexico. Chamaco won
the angle game title last winter,
finishing far ahead of nine other
billiard masters in a round robin
tournament played in nine cities.
In addition to the proposed na
tional amateur meets, the N. B. A.
plans world’s title professional com
petition in pocket billiards and three-
cushion this coming season. Storer
expects 75,000 simon pure amateur
cuemen will compete in the pocket,
straight-rail and three-cushion bil
liard tournaments, working their
way up through local, state and sec
tional play to the national playoffs.
Diamond Hero
TP HE courage of Tom Sunkel,
rookie Cardinal southpaw pitch
er, has thousands of St. Louis fans
cheering for him every time he
makes a mound appearance.
Sunkel is practically blind in his
left eye, the result of an injury suf
fered 23 years ago when he was four
years old. His eye was saved, but
he was left with little better than
half-normal vision.
Showing his courage, he did not
allow this to interfere with his fu
ture. He went ahead and played
good enough baseball to become a
member of the Cardinal organiza
tion. Last year he ended a success
ful career in the minors by winning
21 games and losing five with At
lanta.
In Atlanta his condition became
much worse. Cardinal officials,
knowing the situation, recalled him
and had him examined by eye spe
cialists. They advised against oper
ating on the eye, stating that such
a move would be fruitless. Sunkel
accepted their verdict philosophical
ly, and returned to the diamond, un
daunted by the news which would
have meant the end to most players.
Despite his affliction, Sunkel re
cently pitched a two-hit game and
has a creditable 1939 record with
the Cards. He admits his control is
a bit bothered, and that he has to
guess where the plate is when he
throws, but is quite confident of his
ability to pitch winning baseball.
He also admits that bunts occasion
ally bother him to some extent, but
if he fails to see them with his al-
most-sightless one eye, he “grabs
’em with the other.”
Sunkel expects no quarter from
opposition. And would not welcome
it.
He’s a ball player, first, last and
always.
(Released by Western Newspaper Union.)
Finland’s Gtizens Spur Efforts
To Please 1940 Olympic Visitors
FINNS GO MODERNISTIC. This is an aerial view of the new Olym
pic stadium erected for the 1940 games at Helsingfors, Finland. It was
first built to accommodate 30,000 spectators, but has been enlarged to
care for the 60,000 expected next summer.
New Stadium Is Built for 0
International Sport
ing Event.
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington, D. C.—WNU Service.
Finland and its capital Hel
sinki (Helsingfors) are busi
ly making preparations for
the 12th Olympic games,
opening there in the summer
of 1940.
Recent reports indicate
that Finns are studying ' Eng
lish, the official language of
the Olympics, in order to fa
cilitate relations with their
visitors. Many Helsinki store
keepers have enrolled in one-
year courses in English and
German, and special classes
are being held for railway
employees, street car con
ductors and the Helsinki po
lice force.
Members of the “Lotta Syard,”
woman’s auxiliary of the Finnish
National Guard, are learning to
make the favorite foods of the vari
ous countries whose nationals will
participate in the Olympics.
Stadium Completed.
The Olympic stadium, on the out
skirts of Helsinki, was begun in 1934
and completed last year. Several
athletic events have already been
held there. It was built to accom
modate 30,000 spectators, but it has
been enlarged, in preparation for
the Olympics, to take care of 60,000.
The elliptical running track with
in the stadium, where the world
will perhaps see the making of new
records, is 400 meters in length; in
side the area occupied by the pow
dered-brick track lies a large, well-
kept grass plot on which football
and other games will be played.
The games will begin June 20,
when the Finnish climate is most
favorable for the contests. Near-by
lakes keep Helsinki cool in the sum
mer and extended daylight dur
ing the summer months adds to its
attractiveness as a setting for the
Olympics.
Paavo Nurmi Spectacular.
Interest in physical culture dates
from the early days of the last cen
tury when Finland was made a vas
sal of Russia. A Finnish gymnastic
and athletic association was formed,
only to be banned by the Russians
as soon as it was well-established.
The Finns, however, persisted in de
veloping fine athletes, who were rec
ognized in European sporting cir
cles. In Stockholm, at the Olympic
games of 1912, Hannes Kolehmainen
“ran Finland onto the map.” This
brilliant runner and Paavo Nurmi
are the most spectacular athletes
the country has produced, though
Finns have won laurels in a variety
of other sports—among them discus-
throwing, javelin-throwing, high-
jumping and shot-putting.
Egyptians Construct
A ll- W eather H ighway
Across Biblical Sinai
Across the desolate sand dunes of
Sinai, historic peninsula which links
the continents of Africa and Asia at
the head of the Red Sea, Egyptian
authorities are building a new road.
This road is planned as a strategic
route over which to move troops
between Palestine and Egypt, with
out the usual handicap of weather
delays.
Beginning at Ismailia on the Suez
canal and reaching across the wide
northern stretch of cone-shaped Si
nai, the new road is expected to be
less susceptible to sudden washeuis
(the terror of construction in these
parts) than is the present route to
the south which now runs from Suez
to the Palestine border. Not far
away is one of the world’s most fa
mous paths, the ancient and much-
traveled Biblical route between
Egypt and Palestine. Along this
way came two Josephs of the Bible,
one sold into Egypt by his brothers,
the other, husband of Mary.
To the south, along the pathway
of the Children of Israel, lies Mount
Sinai where Moses received the Ten
Commandments. Today, although
airplanes fly over the peninsula and
trains whistle along its northern
coast, life as a whole in Sinai seems
little changed from the time when
the Israelites first saw it.
Germanic People
Find New Homes
On Foreign Soils
‘World-Community’ Influ
ences Customs of
Other Nations.
Prepared by National Geographic Society,
Washington, D. C.—WNU Service.
Who and where are the
members of the “German
world community,” frequent
ly referred to in the German
press?
If by German, one means
German-speaking, of Ger
man parentage or near
descent, the world’s total
population under this classi
fication would be roughly between
90 and 100 million people.
Within the political boundaries of
Germany, according to official fig
ures, are some 79,-
600,000 inhabitants,
not counting the citi
zens of Memel (also
largely Germanic)
and those of the for
mer Czecho-Slovaki-
an provinces of Mo
ravia - Bohemia ( al
most entirely non-
Germanic.)
In other European
countries, the Reich
Dr. Heinrich claims blood kinship
Bruening wit h so-called Ger
man minorities of
France, Poland, Rumania, Hungary,
Yugoslavia, Italy, Latvia, Denmark,
Lithuania, Estonia, Belgium, the
Crimean Soviet Republic. German
speaking inhabitants of these lands
are estimated anywhere from a mil
lion and a half in France to about
16,000 in Estonia.
Russian Settlement.
Yet the inhabitants of these coun
tries, developing outside Germany,
have evolved a cul
ture and tradition of
their own, different
from that of their
racial cousins. Such,
for example, is the
German group set
tled along the mid
dle Volga river of
Soviet Russia, and
comprising more
than half the popu
lation of the autono
mous Volga-German
republic. Another,
nearer to the Reich,
is the independent little principality
of Liechtenstein, which is so well sat
isfied with its ruler and the country’s
present economic ties with Switzer
land, that some 95 per cent of its
2,600 voters went on record this year
in a public declaration against any
economic union with Germany.
Of foreign stock in the United
States, the Germans are by far the
predominant ele
ment, amounting to
more than 17 per
cent of the total
foreign population.
There are over 6%
million people of
German stock in the
United States, in
cluding those born
in Germany and
those of German pa
rentage on one or
both sides.
New York State
leads the Union in
the number of German-stock inhabi
tants, with more than a- million.
Among Germans who have made
the United States their permanent
home are outstanding figures in all
phases of national life. In govern
ment there is Dr. Heinrich Bruen
ing, former chancellor of the Ger
man republic, now teaching at Har
vard university. In the arts, Lot
tie Lehman, famed Wagnerian so
prano, has taken out her final citi
zenship papers. Marlene Dietrich,
German-born movie star, has also
become a United States citizen.
In Latin America, where the Swas
tika competes for front-line trade po
sition against the Stars and Stripes
and the Union Jack, there are
roughly 1,000,000 people of German
I Dlood.
Marlene
Dietrich
Lottie
Lehman
Designed for Night
and Day Smartness!
/^LIRLS planning to go away to
college will be particularly de
lighted with these gay and youth
ful patterns—day and night, night
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want! But everybody with an eye
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will like them! The pajamas
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they are comfortable to wear and
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nice materials for them.
Slimming Basque Bodice.
A dress that will send your mo
rale and your spirits soaring,
whether you wear it to an office.
classroom, or just on shopping
trips, is 1797. And why? Because
the basque bodice makes your
waistline look about as big as a
minute, the skirt has a delight
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and cuffs give you a fresh, appeal
ing, little girl look. Choose flat
crepe or silk print for this—or
thin wool.
The Patterns.
No. 1794 is designed for sizes 12,
14, 16, 18 and 20. Size 14 requires
51(4 yards of 39-inch material with
long sleeves. With short sleeves
4% yards; 4 yards to trim.
No. 1797 is designed fer sizes 12,
14, 16, 18 and 20. Size 14 requires,
with short sleeves, 3% yards of 39-
inch material. With long sleeves,
4% yards; % yard for collar and
cuffs, with % yards pleating.
Send your order to The Sewing
Circle Pattern Dept., R6om 1324,
211 W. Wacker Dr., Chicago, 111.
Price of patterns, 15 cents (in
coins) each.
(BeU Syndicate—WNU Service.)
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Sentinels
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Don’t Neglect Them I
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Frequent, scanty or burning passages
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The recognized and proper treatment
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