Evening star., 1924-01-21

The incident was kept a close secret
but having leaked out at last, Demp-
sey Is trying to make as light Of il
as possible. Hayes. who, III addition
70 being Dempsey's secretary, IS act
ing as trainer and chaperon Of the
champion, declares that he II certain
Dempsey was not worried bg the e%-
perience in the broken-dowR machine,
but Hayes was frightened sick. He
had consented TO the fi1ht. and he
felt for time that he had robebd
America and the WorlI OF it's best
heavyweight fighter, AMI that at la|
Jack Dempsey's real battle Of c.le
century was to provo a losirl< one.
TO be lost he woulG go Gown with
him, but he could not <elo but think
what Jack kearns. the manager Of
the outfit, would say about him after
he was dead.
Hayes Still Is scared.
Hayes still is d bit scared. 1t has
not quieted his nerves in the least
TO hear the stories about what has
happened to others who have got
caught in the Gulf stream, Only q
short time ago. Col. James H. Nun
nally Of Atlanta, while fishing In the
stream from q speed boat, caught
sight of what appeared to be a sig
nal of distress. Hauling up his lines
he ordered full speed ahead. and
eventually came upon d disabled fish
ing boat with three men on board.
They lad been without food or water
for two days. The gTuesome phase
Of his story is the fact that half
dozen big sharks. seeming to sense
the plight Of the fishermen. we're
lowering about their boat. Even the
appearance of the bigger Nunnally
craft, with its whirring propellers.
failed TO frighten the sharks away.
and not until several heavy rife bull
lets were fired into them did they
disperse.
Dempsey insists there were no sharks
about his seaplane when It was res
cued. but there might have been. SeN-
rral lives have been lost in Florida
waters during the last two seasons as
q re suit Of seaplane fights. and the
sport no longer is as popular as 1t
was.
The outer waters along the coast
are alive with sharks, barracuda and
other big fish, and even strong
swimmer would have little or no
chance OF escape. Jack Dempsey is A
fair swimmer. but is by no means Z
water champion.
First Flight Due To F'frpo.
Other than that header over the
ropes in the Firpo affair, Dempsey had
never had an air flight until the one
in which he met with i'll luck, and the
chances are he will never take an
other. Certainly he will not so long
as Teddy Hayes is In charge Of him
and has the veto power.
You see" explained Dempsey. to
the writer today, 81 am an absolute
novice at this flying business and
when we landed on the water out
there ] thought il was all Il part of
the game. ! thought Il was the busi-
ness OF seaplane to light on the
water and then take off again and |
was thinking TO myself that the pilot
was very kind sort of fellow. want
ing to show ME all the stunts of fly
ing and everything. So / was tickled
as a kid when we came down. The
water was all blue about us. Have
you ever been in the gulf stream? 1t
looks like the old family washing
tub after mother has put the blueing
In It. I noticed that Teddy got TO
fgeting about and pretty soon the
pilot says something has gone wrong
with the old bus and he don't think
he can repair II.
Teddy says, Jack. what we going
to do?' and says, sit steady old boy,
and wait for the bell 10 ring the
pilot keeps on monkeying around and
looking very uneasy. 7 won't tell
YOU his name. II wouldn't he fair.
He was good sort and did the best
he could under the circumstances.
Picked Up by Fishing Boat.
I'VE were tossing about pretty
lively most of the time. but fortunate
ly for us IL was early in the day