Evening star., 1924-11-09
Special Dispatch to The Star.

Special Dispatch to The Star
NEW YORK, November Islands
up. or I'll blow you to bits.''
! Go ahead and blaze away, for
don't intend to take my hands out of
my pockets was the calm reply to
this peremptory challenge
| You won't, eh--well, it's your flu
neral"
| At that five shots were fired in rapid
succession from a Colt automatic pistol
in the general direction Of the heart of
Bernard Spooner. mild hammered little
| man who looks out at the world through
| thick lenses.
| Thief Sees Ghost.
| Each bullet struck its mark. hut
Spooner never batted an eyelash. His
assailant. however, who but a moment
| Defore was the desperate criminal stiff
| Tened with fright. His eyes popped out
as II he had seen a ghost He stared at
his victim for ii moment and then
| fled
The attempted hold-up took place one
evening in a small Middle Western
town Spooner who is demonstrators
and factory manager for the Amer-
| can Armor Corporation, makers of
| bullet-proof vests, was returning
| from the office of the chief Of police,
where he had given demonstration
| of the embarrassing qualities of the
vest.
Il was wearing the vest when the
bandit faced me-" said Spooner. He
| dldnt frighten me in the least. Fac
! ing pistols is rart of my business |
could have obliged him and put up
my hands. for l had only a few cents
| with me a the time, but ! decided TO
! give the vest an actual trial. | never
for a moment believed he would fire.
! His aim was excellent. Each bullet
| struck within inches of my heart.
one bullet alone was enough to Kill
me had | not been wearing my
| armor."
Fired At 2.OOO Times.
During the last two years Spooner
! has been fired at more than 1000
times. Police and detectives in all
parts of the country have hattened
bullets against his chest back and
| sides. Each time he has amazed those
who watched the test by walking away
| unscratched.
The garment he wears looks Ike
the ordinary vest. In fact it can be
| made TO match any suit. SO that the
| wearer can face bullets dressed in his
best. 1t weighs from seven and one
half to nine pounds and is constructed
of numerous extremely thin bovine
plates overlapping one another.
Getting Shot inside a bullet proof
vest" said Spooner lis nothing at
all. The ordinary bullet feels like
the tap of a finger. The Colt AS is
like slight punch. If | were blind
folded and Maxim silencer were
| used I would not know | was being
shot at.
| ASSailnnt Is Nervous.
! Il have found that the one who is
to fire at me is generally nervous. He
! cannot make himself believe that the
vest will stop a bullet. often I have
had to steady the aim of my assailant
before permitting him to pull the
! trigger.
sometimes when ! am demonstrate
| ing l take some one along to do the
shooting. But that is not always
convenient. Once when l was alone
| demonstrating the vest TO the heads
of the police department in a South
| ern city | could not persuade any one
present to fire the shot
No matter how much / reasoned,
no one would take up the pistol. l
| thought of making one of them mad,
but finally changed my mind, fearing
that the latter course would be too
dangerous So / put the vest on a cop
and did the firing myself
| Wasn't Afraid First Time,
THE first time I tried out the vest
/ l was curious. ] wasn't afraid Pre-
| viously I had tested it on a dummy
| The difficulty was getting some one
| to shoot at me. Each was afraid of
being held for murder. / finally had
! to fall back on a friend. He fired the
first shot and found that it did less
| harm to me than it had to the
| dummy
Spooner has been interested in ar
NOR many years. He studied German
| methods and then came to this coun-