The Idaho recorder. [volume] (Salmon City, Idaho) 1886-1927, 1920-12-10
REAL FACTS STRANGER Than
WEIRDEST FICTION STORIES
imagination OF the Most Gifted Novelist 0utdone by Lies Real
Romances-No One Could Have Imagined or Written
Such Stupendous Tragedy the War the
World Has lust Gone Through

who has been called the Man With
out a Country" and the Human Shut
tle," who sails the high seas from
country to country, everywhere de sme,i
an undesirable and turned away by
the immigration authorities. with no
country To go to. he salIs from port
10 port, citizen Of keptune's do
mains, perhaps changing ships occa.
sionaily. but always travelling the
seas. II Is time for him to arrive back
al some American port from Buenos
Ayres or some other remote port
and for few days the newspapers
again Will record his story which Is
stranger than fiction.
stowaways Are Common.
Stowaways by hundreds come into
this port from all the countries of TIM.
world and their stories have been told
40 many times that sometimes the
newspapers omit any mention Of them.
they range from lads of 10 aud II
years old To old men with the vision
OF adventure In new land still be-
fore their eyes--and some are women.
There was recently the true story
of the Greek steamship Thessa1oniki
mat Fought nlnety-mile gales for
week during the heaviest winter
weather on the Atlantic, with engines
disabled and food lockers empty, un-
I'll help stood by to take off crew and
passengers. The ship was never seen
again.
Then there Is the mystery OF the Cy.
ciops. which never reached her mort
ana was swallowed up Ia the high
seas.
These are stories the reader feels
10 be far more strange than fiction.
Tor while fiction seems to struggle TO
be real or realistic. the truth seems to
struggle to be unreal and fantastic.
or ut least romantic.
Z Plots Of many of the great operas
OF some great novels. and OF many
works OF fiction not 80 great. are based
upon police court cases. upon murders,
thievery. or some other crime. Ac- |
rompanied by music and surrounded
by the jewels OF the Diamond Horse.
shoe. the sordid crime story may be-
come thigh art"
In many of the hundred or so MUIR
iers In this city every year fire.
Iuently there are score which. be- !
'orc the police step In, are just as
as any love story In the fic-
Ion Of Thomas Hardy--although Har-
~ carried his cases to the courts and
frequently to the gallows. There are
murders for love. murders for great
polls and sums OF money, and strang-
r than any fiction are the unsolved
murders committed In this city In silk.
'ond and whisky thefts.
Strange Murders.
Where In fiction Is anything more
nntastlc than that unsolved murder
( two Chinese government representa-
Ives In the Chinese embassy ut Wash.
ngton or some OF the Chinese MUIR
ers In this city? Or the Italian ven.
ettas In this city. many OF whose
iliings never find their way into print
ecause the crimes are 40 numerous?
md the romantic murders" with dis
ppointed love as the motive, how
inny foolish SWANS can be found each
ear In a metropolitan district OF
.0O0OOO, and how many suicides are
omn,itted after disappolntments In n
hIef interest In lifey In the hand of
master plotter and character sketch.
Z they are romance. hut In the police
ecors's they are merely sordid m.
,easant chronicles. but nevertheless.
Ike fiction and true.
few months ago Major Alden G.
fcMurtry. an officer who was dis
ppointed at not seeing service In
rance, entered the cellar of n mnn.
ION In Greenwich. Conn. and. fixing
pistol flashes In the dark. after bul.
rs had smashed his hand electric
imp with tinkling OF glass. killed
40 burglars who We're waiting there
, slay him. There Is the same sort