The St. Charles herald., 1920-12-18
REAL FACTS STRANGER Than
lNEIRDES 7 FICTION STORIES
Imagination the host Gifted Novelist Outdone by Lies Real
Romancs-No One Could Have imagined or Written
Suc StIpendoLs Tragedy as the War the
World Has .ust Gone Through

who has been called the "Alan With
out a Country" and the Human Shut
tle. who sails the high seas from
country to country, everywhere de med
an undesirable and turned away by
, me Immigration authorities. With no
country to go TO. lie sails from port
10 port. citizen OF Neptunes do
mains, perhaps changing ships occa-
Siohaiiy, hut always travelling the
seas. 1t is ime for him to arrive back
at some A, erican port from BuenoS
AHres or some other remote port
and for a few days the newspapers
again will record lis story which X
stranger than fiction.
StoWaways Are Common.
StoWaWays by hundreds come into
this port from aIl the countries of the
world and their ST. ries have been told
so many times that sometimes the
newspapers omit ally mention of them.
They range from lads Of 10 and II
years old to old men with the vision
OF adventure in Il new land still be.
Tore their eyes--lnd some are women.
There WAS recently he true story
of the Greek steamship. Thessaioniki
mat fought ninety-Inile gales for Il
week during the heaviest winter
weather OH the Atlantic. with engines
disabled and food lockers empty, un-
iii help stood by to take off crew AMI
passengers. The ship was never seen
again.
Then there is the mystery of the Cy-
ciops, which never reached her port
and was swallowed up In the hig!,
seas.
These are stories the reader feels
to be far more strange than fictior.
for while ficti0n seems to struggle TO
be real or realistic. the truth seems to
struggle to 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 cases. upon murders.
thievery. or some other crime. Ac-
companied by music and surrounded
by the Jewels of the Diamond Horse
shoe, the sortlid crime story may be-
come "high art"
In many of the hundred or so mur-
ders In this city every year fire.
quently there are score which. be-
fore the police step in, are just as
romantic as any love story in the fir-
tion Of Thomas Harly-although Har-
dy carried his cases to the courts ana
frequently to the gallows. There are
murders for love. murders for great
spoils md sums of money, and strang-
er than any fiction are the uns0Ived
murders committed In this city In silk,
bond and whisky thefts.
Strange Murders.
Where In fiction Is anything more
fantastic than that uns0lved murder
Of two Chinese government representa-.
tives In the Chinese embassy at WASH
ingtOn or some of the Chinese muir.
slers In this cityf Or the Italian ven.
dettas In this city, many Of whose
killings never find their way Into print
because the crimes are so numerous:
And tlle romantic murders" with dis
appointed love as the motive, how
llaliy foolish swains can be found each
year in a metropolitan district of
100000, and how many suicides are
committed after disappointments in
chief interest in life? In the hand OF
d master pi0tter and character sketch
er they are romance, hut In the police.
records they are merely sordid un-
pleasant chronicles. but nevertheless,
like fiction and true.
A few months ago Major Alden G
McAiurtry. an officer who was dis
appointed at not seeing service il
France. entered the cellar of man
sion In Greenwich. Conn.,, and. firins
at pistol flashes in the dark. after bul
lets had smashed his hand electric.
lamp with q tinklihg Of glass, killed
two burglars who were waiting there
to slay him. There Is the same sort