The L'Anse sentinel., 1920-12-17
REAL FACTS STRAN NICER Than
WEIRDEST FICTION STORIES
Imagination Of the Most Gifted Novelist 0utdone by Lies Real
Romances-No One Could Have Imagined Written
Such Stupendous Tragedy as the War the
World Has Just Gone Through

who has been called the "Man with.
out Country" and the Human Shut,
tie" who sails the high seas from
country to country, everywhere de emed
an undesirable and turned away by
the immigration authorities. With nc
country to go to, lie sails from port
to port, a 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 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 the
world and their stories have been told
so many times that sometimes the
newspapers omit any mention of them.
They range from lads of 10 and 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 Thessalonilii
that fought ninety-mile gales for a
week during the heaviest winter
weather on the Atlantic, with engines
disabled and food lockers empty, un-
| til help stood by to take off crew and
passengers. The ship was never seen
again.
Then there Is the mystery of the Cy-
| clops, which never reached her port
and was swallowed up In the high
| seas.
These are stories the reader feels
to be far more strange than fiction.
for while fiction 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 sordid 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 a score which, be-
fore the police step In, are just as
romantic as any love story in the fics
tion of Thomas Hardy--although Har-
| dy carried his cases to the courts and
frequently to the gallows. There are
murders for love, murders for great
| spoils and sums of money, and strang-
er than any fiction are the unsolved
murders committed In this city I'm 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 MUIR
| ders In this city? Or the Italian ven
dettas in this city, many of whose
killings never find their way ipto print
| because the crimes are so numerous? :?
| And the romantic MURDERS" with dis
4,
many foolish SWANS can be found each
year in Il metropolitan district of
| 100000, and bow many suicides are
| committed after disappointments in n
chief interest in life? In the hand of
| q master plotter and character sketch
er they are romance. but in the police
| records they are merely sordid un-
pleasant chronicles. but nevertheless,
| like fiction and true.
A few months ago Major Alden G.
| McMurtry. an officer who was dis
appointed at not seeing service In
| France. entered the cellar of man
sion in Greenwich, Conn, and. firing
at pistol flashes in the dark. after bull
lets had smashed his hand electric
lamp with tinkllng Of glass, killed
| two burglars who were waiting there
to slay him. There is the same sort