Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-09
POTENTIAL BOY KILLER TURNS
INTO SHOCK ABSORBER EXPERT
Gales Special School Finds Mechanics
Ou1,t for Inferiority Complex of
Youthful Knife Wielder.

he seemed absorbed in the mechanism.
He didn't ask questions about it--but
just screwed and unscreWed the valve
time and time again. Ordinarily
child puttering with the steam radiator
in a Schoolroom would have been
reprimanded.
Possibly the boy had a mechanical
mind, Fife thought. He decided to
test him out The next morning
through his breakfast little late, he
glanced hastily about his garage for
some mechanical device sor the child
F. There was nothing appropriate. He
picked up an old shock absorbar, brok-
en-, out-of-date, and long past its days
of usefulness.
Upon such trifiing incidents as this
the course of whole life may turn.
That day in school Paul was fas-
cinated by the shock absorber. Time
after time he took it to pieces and put
| it together again. He resented any
efforts to explain to him how the de-
vice worked. He had found his voca-
ton.
Turns Inventor.
A few weeks later he came to the
teacher with the announcement that
the old shock absorber was no good.
that the fellow who made it didn't
know anything about the principle of
The thing, but that he had invented a
much better one. He had made it at
nome out OF wood. He explained his
idea and it seemed workable. It oper-
ated with water which. Paul said. was
the great defect. Water ran through
the holes too easily. He had an idea
that what shock absorbers needed was
molaSseS. Fife gave him some money
to buy quart of molasses.
Shock absorbers began to replace
knives as Paul's obsession. He thought
and lived shock absorbers. Still he
wouldn't learn anything else. Fife de-
clded that it was best to let well enough
alone. He saw that the proper environ
ment for the boy was a shock absorber
environment, for the time being.
Paui was rather young to go to work,
but garage owner, after repeated
solicitation, agreed to give him a trial
without any pay. The boy leaped at the
chance. He could get money from his
folks. he said, and would be willing to
pay the garage man for an opportunity
to live among shock absorbers.
That was months ago. Today Paul
has the reputation of being one Of the
best shock absorber mechanics in Wash
ington. He does nothing else Some OF
the most expensive cars in the city are
brought to him for his expert opinion
on shock absorbers.
Works in Garage.
But he is far more than a shock alb
sorber mechanic. He has a shock alb
Sorber imagination. He Is working on
the perfect shock abSorber for automo-
biles. 1t Is very likely, experts who have
looked over his work say. that Paul will
some DAY revolutionize the worlds ideas
on shock absorption. He is a shock alb
sorber genius. He knows everything
about them and thinks of nothing else
He seems to have an instructive ability
to look at a rough-riding car and tell
what is wrong with its shock abSorbcr
system.
But he already is thinking beyond
shock absorbers for automobiles into
the subject of shock absorbers for men
He has an idea in mind, he confided
to Fife. which will enable a human
being to walk over hard pavements as
if he were floating through air. Some
day he is going to provide this grea+
boon for humanity.
Is the greatest shock absorber expert
in Washington dullard? Fife asks.
Paul doesn't throw knives any more
but the same old inferiority complex l.
at the root of his personality.
But he has found more effective
way to make people feel his presence
and pay attention to him. This Is by
the working of genius.