Evening star., 1901-07-27
AS IT REALLY HAPPENED


Help! Help! Save mel"
The thousands Of hathers on the great
beach were startled almost to frenzy by
the wild, despairing masculine cry.
They rushed upon the strand and gazed
out far beyond the breaker line. whence
the hoarse cry for help proceeded.
They saw a man struggling desperately
| on the surface of the water-a man who
appeared to be in the final stages Of weari-
ness, and who only feebly battled against
the great rollers that swept over him at
frequent intervals.
Save me!' came the wild voice again
| and again.
But 1t was not necessary for the struggler
in the pounding surf to cry out the second
time. At his very first shout for rescue
three brave coast guards leaped with agile
grace into their surf boat and put out
| through the giant curling combers Tor the
man whose hoarse shouts still proceeded
from the point far beyond the breaker
line.
The thousands standing on the shore
watched the struggle of the surf boat
through the waves with painful anxiety.
The men muttered, and the women wrung
their hands, and the children ran to their
lArents, shrieking.
All! A sigh of the most intense relief
went up from the hearts of those on the
bench. They saw that the boat was only
ten feet or away from the still strug-
Cling victim of the might Of the sea.
few more swift strokes-Ah! again from
the beach-and they saw the clean-lfmbed
young coast guards reach over the gunl or
the surf boat to clutch the figure of the
struggler.
However, the struggler placed his fin
gers at his nose and directed them at the
coast guards, at the same time striking
out and swimming like dolphin, and CIV
n hnarSa
The coast guards, with deep disgust writ
all over their features, pulled back to the
strand through the boiling surge
Hell never get us again that way, all
right" they said unto each other as they
pushed their boat up to the verge.
The Indignation of the thousands of
bathers on the beach over the idfotic hoax
Of the youth far beyond the breaker line
found vent In many strong expressions,
and when the young man. grinning. nnaiiy
made his way to the sand he was glared
at with extreme vindictiveness.
On the very. next day, at the same hour:
Help! Help! Save mel" was the cry
that again went up from the point beyond
the breaker line. and the Mortified bathers
| many of whom had witnessed the event OF
the day before, again experienced shock
until they saw that the cry was proceeding
from the same youth who had befooied
them but yesterday. They only scoWled
this time and murmured things about i'm
beetles. The coast guards made tunnels OF
| their hands and looked out at the youth,
who was still shouting Justify for assist
ance, and when they saw that 1t was the
same struggler who had struggled the day
before and given them the hoot they sat
down again and smoked away at their Gig
aretteS.
"Nothn' doin'," they said. Same cheap
skate that put it on us yesterday"
Meantime the cries from beyond the
breaker line were becoming fainter. and
the folks on the beach were amused in
spite of themselves to see how cleverly the
shouter was portraying the actions of a
drowning man. However, when they saw
him go down and disappear they
Now, according to the commonly accept
ed idea as to the way this story ought to
wind up, it would be the proper kink to go
ahead and expatiate upon the fact that the
young man out beyond the breaker line had
cried "Wolfr once too often, and that, be-
cause he had been so skittish and playful
the day before in his endeavors to fool the
crowd on the shore, he sacrificed his life,
because the coast guards thought that he
was only fooling and didn't believe that he
was really in trouble
But this newspaper doesn't handle COM
monty accepted facts until they are clearly
shown to be facts.
When the youth out beyond the breaker
line saw that he was again looked upon as
fakir, and that the coast guards weren't
coming near him, he simply gave up trying
to fool 'em again on the beach, and swan
with strong strokes to the shore where he
giggled with some friends for quite half an
hour before returning to his bath house.
he wasn't anywhere near being drowned
and he had not cried "Wolf!' once or twice
or even three times too often.
A strict adherence to facts would splinter
most OF these stories that wind up like the
stories In the books won out by little Willie
for standing second to the head In the
spelling class.