The Snowflake herald., 1920-12-24

"h0 SdliS tire IllSn seas from
country to country, everywhere deemed
sn undesirable and turned away bv
the immigration authorities. With no
country TO go to, he sails from port
10 port, citizen of Neptune's do
mains. perhaps changing ships occa-
Sionally, but always travelling the
seas. 1t is time for him to arrive back
at some American port from Buenos
Ayres or some other remote port
and for a few days the newspapers
again will record his story which is
stranger than fiction.
Stcwaways Are Common.
Stowaways by hundreds come into
this port from all the countries Of the
world and their stories have been told
so many times that sometimes the
newspapers omit any mention of them.
Taey range from lads of 10 and u
years Old to old men with the vision
u adventure in a new land still be-
fore their eyes-and some are women.
There was recently the true story
of the Greek steamship Thessaloniki
that fought ninety-mile gales for a
week during the heaviest winter
weather on, the Atlantic, with engines
disabled AM food lockers empty, un-
til help stood by to take off crew and
passengers. The ship was never seen
again.
Then there is the myste:y Of tha Cy-
clops, which never reached her port
and was sgallowed up in the high
seas.
These are stories the reader feels
TO be far more strange than fiction.
for while tiction seems to struggle to
be real or realistic, the truth seems to
struggle 10 be unreal and fantastic
or at least romantic.
Plots of many of the great operas,
of some great novels, and of many
works of fiction not so great, are based
upon police court eases, upon MURDERS
thievery. or some other crime. Ac-
companied by music and surrounded
by the Jewels OF the Diamond Horse
shoe, the sordid crime story may be
come "high art"
In many Of the hundred or so mur-
quently there are a score which, be
fore the police step in, are just as
romantic as any love story in the fic-
ton Of Thomas Hardy-although Har-
dy carried his cases to the courts and
frequently to tie gallows. There ares
murders for love, murders for great
spoils and sums OF money, and strang
er than any fiction are the unsolyed
murders committed in this city in silk
bond and whisky thefts.
Strange Murders.
Where in fiction is anything more
fantastic than that unsolved murder
of two Chinese government representa-
tives in the Chinese embassy at Wash
ington or some OF the Chinese mur
ders in this city? Or the italian ven
dettas in this CITY, many of whose
killings never md their way into print
because the crimes dre so numerous
And the romantic us,leleTs,' with dis
appointed love rs tie motive, how
many foolish swains can be found each
year in a metropolitan district OF
100000, and how many suicides are
committed after disappointments in a
chief interest in life? In the hand OF
a master plotter and character sketch
er they are romance. but in the police
records they are merely sordid, IN
pleasant chronicles, but nevertheless
like fiction and true.
A few months ago Major Alden G.
IcAurtry. an officer who was dis
appointed at not seeing service In
Frahce, entered the cellar of man
sion in Greenwich, Conn.,, and, firing
at pistol flashes in the dark, after bull
let's had smashed his hand electric
lamp with tinkling OF glass, killed
two burglars who were waiting there
to slav him. There is the same sort
of fight in the basement of THE House
of a Thousand Candles by Meredith
Nicholson. Sherlock Homes fought
his captors ir the gas chamber and
fooled them by placing his lighted
cigar tip on ledge in the dark cham,
Der so that they rushed against the
wall and he escaped. There is the
fight in the roundhouse in "hid,
mapped d'-and scores OF olher pshtF
Of similar nature in other of Steven
sons works and in those of other
writer's. But Major McMurtry's act
of heroism was not brain tigment-H
was truth
Get Great Wealth.
Hundreds of instances have been
related of persons having great wealth
thrust upon them suddenly in the last
few years, as we'll as instances OF
persons in humble circumstances VINO
by some turn of luck, made great sums
of money merely by getting some rec
ognition for their natural abilities
The latest case of luck Is that OF
Arthur I. Walker, private secretary
to Edward r. SearIes, who was the
heir OF his employers estate, variousi!
estimated at between $5,OO0OOo and
s5O.OOOOOO, but which later estimates
- Apcf