^ fi * #/ //
ADVENTURERS’
CLUB
“The Open Grave"
By FLOYD GIBBONS
Famous Headline Hunter.
AND greeting and salutations, Miss Evelyn Perry, for the story
k of your night of terror.
Gosh! If folks don’t stop telling me spooky stories about grave
j..;ds I'll be afraid of even being buried in one.
Let's tell this one as fast as we can before my hands start shaking
Question: “And now, Miss Terry, where were you on the night of February
21. 1!»2S?”
Answer: “1 was in n graveyard.”
Question: “A graveyard! What were you doing !n a graveyard at night?’
Answer: "The graveyard was near my home and by cutting through It 1
could save a mile on my walk from town. I had been attending a dance In
town and had stayed later than 1 had permission to stny so I left the dance
alone and in my hurry to get home entered the graveyard.”
Question: “Did you continue through the graveyard?”
Answer: “No.”
Question: "What did you see there that caused you to change your
mind?”
Answer: "I saw a-"
Wait a minute I I object. We haven't any proof that Miss Perry saw a
ghost, so let's just review the evidence for the Adventurers’ club Jury and let
them judge.
Evelyn Entered a Graveyard With Open Mind.
The evidence I have here before me shows that Miss Perry entered the
graveyard In a carefree manner. She was thinking of the good time she had
MBSMB -S_g CUjL._aifflUttl -WJ_l
She Jumped Out Like a Frightened Ghost.
had nt the dance and not a thought of the supernatural passed through her
romantic mind.
Tills stnte of mind Is important. It leaves out the supposition that the
young lady might have been "seeing things” because of an active Imagination
The night was a typical February one. A light snow lay on the
ground and dark wintry clouds made the way difficult to see.
But Miss Perry was not bothered by that She had taken this
short cut through the grave-stones many times before and was com
pletely familiar with It
She had, on this night, according to her own testimony, traversed two
thirds of the graveyard and was approaching the farther gate when she saw
something that caused her to stand transfixed with horror 1
A Real Ghost Clanks Real Chains.
A white figure moved slowly toward her along the path to the gate!
The figure, Miss Perry says, was approaching her and as she stared
terror-stricken, unable to scream because of a tremulous lump In her
throat, she heard distinctly the slight metallic rustling of chaine!
Miss Perry was now beside herself with horror. She saw that she could
not reach the gate without passing close to the specter In her path.
She decided, therefore, to return the way she had come—even If It was a
mile farther. But she was afraid to turn suddenly and run so she kept facing
the Thing and backed slowly away.
At this point, boys and girls of the jury, you’d better take a deep breath.
You may think this is written flippantly but when you hear what
happened next you’ll understand how terribly serious It really was.
As Miss Perry walked blindly backward she tripped and fell right
Into an open grave!
I told you to take a deep breath! Well, now, take another one, and make
It a good one, because the worst is yet to come.
You may even doubt that u young person could go through such an ex
perience and keep her reason, but one did, and It’s true. All right, have you
got your breath? Then listen.
Miss Perry was not alone in that open gravel
As she fell, a cold hand closed on her wrist!
Zowle! The dead In that graveyard are still talking about the scream the
young lady let out and, If they could have seen her, they would have been even
more amazed.
She wrenched loose from that hand and Jumped like a frightened ghost
right out of the grave!
Unbelievable Story Has Plausible Ending.
Through the stones and out the gate toward home she went at break neck
speed and ttiat long extra mile seemed only a few short steps—so fast did she
travel 1 Iler clothes were torn and muddy but she crept Into bed and hid her
head under the covers.
Not until the next afternoon did the shaken girl dare tell her
weird story. And what do you suppose her father did? Why, the un.
feeling man just roared with laughter!
You see, Evelyn Perry's father had heard another story that day
which dovetailed perfectly with his daughter’s.
Now that my heart Is a little quiet I’ll tell you the facts. Here they are,
In order:
First: The town drunkard’s white goat ran away after breaking his chain.
(It was this goat—not a ghost—that Evelyn saw.)
Second: Said drunkard, while following his goat Into the graveyard, fell
Into an open grave and was too stiff to climb out He was found there the next
morning.
Third: Evelyn fell into the same grave and aforesaid T. D.—like a drown
ing man grasping a straw—grabbed her wrist!
Well, these are the facts In the cast, so you see It’s all true after all.
Evelyn uoesn’t say whether her hair turned white or not, but I know a certain
portly Adventurer who would have gone green and stayed right In that grave 1
How about you?
©— WNU Service
Origin of Word* "Cow," "Bull"
The words “cow" and "bull" are
probably Imitative, the root idea of
"bull” being a suggestion of Its bel
lowing, while "cow," which In early
English and Scotch Is pronounced
“coo," Is Imitative of the lowing call
to the calf.
Pirates Wiped Out
Hongkong, once a pirate-infested
Island, Is now one of the great ports
of the world. Almost a century ago
Great Britain obtained possession of
the Island, and since then It has be
come the principal ocean-way to the
markets of South China.
Clipper Ship, Marvel of Skyways
load amounting to several tons to
Europe over the route made famous
by Col. Charles A. Lindbergh.
With normal stopping periods In
cluded, a ship of this typo could fly
from New York to London in about 33
hours, averaging 1(H) miles an hour.
That is less than the time required to
go from New York to Chicago and
hack by rail. The traveler could leave
New York late Saturday night and he
in London in time to start the business
week first thing Monday morning.
Instead of a pilot and co-pilot, like
our land transport planes have, the
clipper ship has a captain and a navi
gator, for It is an ocean-going vessel.
Automatic Flying.
Most of the flying Is done by uu
automatic pilot that leaves these two
officers free to keep close watch on
the course of the ship. The condition
of the engine Is entirely in charge of
Above, Artist’s Conception of 1,500-Passenger Transatlantic Plane Planned In Germany. Right, Pan-American Clipper
Ship. Below, Maxim Gorki, Russia's Largest Plane, Which Crashed, Killing 48.
By WILLIAM C. UTLEY
THE world, with America in the
lead, Is entering a new and
glorious era of transportation.
It might be called the Era of
Realization of the Fantastic.
Not so many years ago—in fact with
in the memory of children still In
school—covers of magazines of the so
called “science” nnd "Invention” type
were filled with artists’ startling con
ception of great flying palaces, then
weird in appearance, which were to tie
together the far ends of the earth In
the future. Blase passengers were
shown reading newspapers, playing
chess or even shuffle-hoard while their
groat winged carriers cleft the clouds
far above the vast expanses of ocean.
Novels of highly imaginative fiction,
typified by the "Mars" stories of Ed
gar Rice Burroughs, bristled our
spines with high jinks on other planets
where the members of scientifically su
perior civilizations flew about the
faces of their respective planets In
spectacular hops of thousands of miles
at a time.
Such wild literary entertainment we
were wont, for fear of appearing too
silly to our neighbors, to leave in up
stairs bedrooms, reserving the space
on the library table for Dickens.
Thackeray, Edgar A. Guest and the
family Bible. And while deep in our
hearts we thought It was “swell" read
ing, we knew that it was really “Im
possible stuff!’’
Yet, before the year Is out, regular
scheduled passenger service will be In
effect between the United States and
China. Not flying palaces, perhaps,
but at least flying hotels will soon link
the newest nnd most progressive of the
great powers with the oldest and most
mysterious of nations on another side
of the world. Surprising enough, the
giant ships of the air look very much
like the artists’ conceptions which
graced the sensational press of a few
years back. Most surprising of nil,
we accept the real thing with far less
amazement than we did its imaginative
forerunner.
Now that the New Era Is actually
upon us, we accept with little wonder
the fact that German engineers are
planning the construction of a trans
atlantic nir liner that will carry 1,500
persons. This flying boat will he lit
erally a hotel on wings. It will sacri
fice none of the comforts of the great
ocean liners, with their sport decks,
entertainment facilities, etc.
Ship Cars by Air.
There will lie elevators from deck to
deck. There will he room for trav
elers to take their own automobiles
across the sea with them. Oarages
will be provided for these; special hoist
ing machinery will lift the cars up
Into the plane.
The ocean steamship has its supply
of life boats to turn loose from tlm
mother ship in case of emergency at
sea, and the proposed (lying boat will
not be outdone in this respect, either,
for room will be provided to house
smaller auxiliary planes. These will
take off from the surface of the body
of the great plane, being speeded on
their way over the sea hy a powerful
catapult which will assure their get
ting into the air.
This ship may sound a little fan
tastic to us, but by this time we are
used to having fantastic new contrap
tions accepted as practical facts al
most overnight. The German design
ers promise us that such a flying ship
ns this will be ready for travel over
the ocean In the very near future.
Hardly less spectacular Is the Amer
ican marvel of the skyways, Flying
Clipper No. 7, which Is now completed
ns the first ship ever designed spe
cifically for transoceanic travel. It
will begin service, probably on the
route across the Pacific, some time
this summer. It Is now finishing tests
which so far have proved It to be
equal to the bullying of the elements
and the once forbidding distunce be
tween continents. With Its inception
Into service the period of pure experi
ment will be over.
None of the comforts of rail travel
need be sacrificed aboard the clipper.
Soundproofing of all passenger com
partments reduces motor noise so that
it Is no greater than the unannoying
noise of a pullman car. The passen
ger deck, 43 feet long, has a celling
six nnd one-half feet high, so that
even tall men need not stoop In walk
ing.
Thirty passengers nnd a crew of five
can be carried. The spacious lounge
and dining room seats 10 at a time.
For sleeping, the passenger seats can
be converted into 12 single nnd six
double berths; In case of a “full
house” tiiere are four double berths
available in the lounge.
The clipper has four engines, whose
3,200 developed horsepower can climb
1,000 feet a minute with a load of 51,
000 pounds. The plane’s cruising speed
at 12,000 feet is 163 miles an hour,
but it can do 180 and more if neces
sary. It can soar more than four miles
high. *
Safety Clipper watcnwora.
Safety hi,s been the watchword In
the design of the clipper. If one of
the engines should fall, the other
three could finish the (light, carrying
the 51,000-pound burden. Even If two
of them should go dead at the same
time, the remaining two would main
tain the altitude long enough to allow
the captain and his men an oppor
tunity to make ready for any emer
gencies.
The sea holds no terrors for this re
markable ship. It could make a
forced landing In a stormy sea with
more ease than the gray gull it resem
bles. It cun land or take off la u sea
with waves running five feet high.
Former clipper ships have been as
sisted in the water by pontoons sus
pended from the wings. No. 7 lias a
supporting device, new to American de
sign, which Is called a “sponsoon” and
might he likened to an additional
wing. This sticks out a short distance
from each side of the body at water
level. It serves to house the fuel
tanks, also.
The No. 7 is larger in every respect
than the clipper ship which recently
llew from California to Hawaii and
hack again. The latter's four engines
are each of 700 horsepower, totaling
400 less than the No. 7. It has a 114
foot wing spread, weighs 10,000 pounds
empty, 40,000 pounds loaded, and Its
maximum cruising range is 3,000 miles.
The new clipper’s wings are 130
feet from tip to tip. It weighs 23,100
pounds empty and can add a useful
load of 27,000 pounds. Its maximum
range Is 4,000 mile's. If mileage be
tween stops were reduced, the ship
could carry 24 passengers and a pay
the ship’s engineer. Nearly all of the
many Instruments, gages, dials and in
dicators are banked in the engine
room, which is in the center of the
wing.
No. 7 is truly a symbol of the steps
ahead which have been made in trans
continental air travel. France is link
ing up eveu its most distant colonies
with the French capital by means of
ships of this size, one of which has
already been completed, the Lieut.-de
Vaisseau-Faris. Tills ship is the larg
est seaplane In the world, with a
wingspread of nearly 50 meters and
engines which develop more than 5.200
horsepower. It weighs 37 tons and has
a crew of eight. It has several first
class cabins, each with two beds and
a private bath.
Service has already started between
the French capital and points in
French Colonial Africa. The Nether
lands have ordered new Douglas planes
for transcontinental lines. Service has
been going along on schedule for some
time between the United States and
various South American points served
by Pan-American Airways. The Graf
Zeppelin is so regular in its schedule
between Germany and Frazil that no
one mentions its arrivals and depar
tures any more.
Since early tills year, American
ships have been busy carrying sup
plies of all kinds—food, clothing, cows,
chickens, tools and building materials
—to once isolated Islands in the Pa
cific ocean, so that they can be con
verted into habitable landing stations
in the most Important of nil the new
sea routes, the one from the United
States to China.
The longest hop on this Journey will
be the one from California to Hawaii,
a distance of 2,400 miles, to be cov
ered In a little more than 17 hours,
ns the Pan-American clipper com
manded by Captain Mustek covered it a
few weeks ngo. From Hawaii, the
planes will hop to Guam, Wake, Mid
way, the Philippine islands and Can
ton, China.
Russian Marvel Crashes.
With all the clipper ships considered,
perhaps the most unusual of all the
giants of the air was the ill-fated Rus
sian ship, the Maxim Gorki. It weighed
42 tons, carried 03 persons, had eight
engines of a total of 7,(XX) horsepower,
flow 1-iO miles an hour and cost $4,
3r>0,(XX). In it were a complete photo
graphic studio, a photo engraving plant,
un electrically driven rotary printing
press capable of turning out 8,(XX)
newspapers an hour, a radio broad
casting studio, talking movie equip
ment, a restaurant-lounge, 16 tele
phones, an observation saloon, business
oflicps, sleeping quarters und a sound
amplifier system. It wns used, of
course, for Soviet propaganda pur
poses.
The crashing of the Gorki, with the
loss of everyone aboard, during ma
neuvers over Moscow, was something
of a shock to the builders of all large
airplanes. It must be pointed out,
however, flint the accident was no
fault of the ship. A pilot of a smaller
plane, stunting against orders, ran Into
it, head-on. The Insubordinate tiler
wus himself killed In the crash.
Not even the sensational magazines
predicted such unbelievable wonders
as a 'flying newspaper plant, radio
studio and moving picture theater.
Q Western Newspaper Uulun.