New Britain herald., 1930-07-15
Chicago Lad III After Re- fueling Too Often On Soda Pop and Sand wiches.

Chicago, July IS (UP)-The young west has gone lair minded" and tree sitting, an unknown art a week ago, today was the most popular pastime in the Mississippi valley.
 Emulating perhaps the Hunter brothers of aviation endurance fame perhaps Tarzan of the Apes, boys of all ages, and girls too, perched among the tree tops. each deter mined to win everlasting fame by re- maining there longer than any of the others. They sat in oak trees and Iowa and Missouri, Wisconsin, Michi- gan, Oklahoma and Illinois.
 No accurate estimate of the num- Der oi boys and girls who had taken up the fad started by Jimmy Clem- ons of Racine, Wis, is available, but lowest estimates were that at least 50 were in the race and so vociferous were their claims that fame came to few except in their own immediate neighborhoods.
 None. however, disputed the claim of 14 year old Jack Richards of Kansas City that he is the champion thus far. At a. m. (Cst yester- day Jack had been up" for 94 hours, which was 58 hours more than the original record set by the Racine boys.
 'I'll stay up here until school starts" said Jack. I'm only 14, but l can sit as good as if I were older.
 Has Girl Rival ? In another Kansas City tree sat Eva Bates. 12. She was left alone at 11:30 last night when Charlotte Finnell, II. who had been sitting with her for 39 hours, decided she didn't want to play any nor.
 "EN . is going 10 sick just the same and beat the time of that boy" her mother said after Charlotte had climbed down.
 In Chicago, Jack Harris. 12, and Truman Kirkpatrick, l 6. made a late start in the tree sitting game but benefited by mistakes of their predecessors and made preparations to remain up indefinitely. Before entering the unofficial contest for the mythical championship, this pair built a comfortable home in the branches of a tree in the Kirkpatrick back yard. Their house among the branches is large enough for them to walk around a bit and they can lie down to sleep. Two other boys act as 'refuelers," sending food up by a long rope and pulley.
 Refuels Too Often
 One Chicago boys, Louis Sanders. Jr. was forced down after 65 hours Too many sandwiches and soda pop sent up to him by solicitous play mates, gave him an old fashioned stomach ache and he came down and went to bed.-
 A rainstorm bothered the stters here, but most Of them stuck to their limbs. Herbert Ellingham, Jr., and Eddie SwaGCon, both 12, drew d crowd of almost 500 persons at one time. Then one of the "refuelers' suggested that they take lip a col lection" and the crowd dispersed quickly.
 In Wisconsin. the tree sitters were go numerous that boards of health interfered, but proclamations to the effect there would be no more tree sitting in public parks had little ef- fleets. The boys and girls retired to their own back wards and started over again.
 The fad spread 10 Okla homa Sun day when Billie Thompson, 13, and Archie Thompson, 19, brothers, climbed up a couple of trees with a promise from their mother they would get plenty to eat and one from their father that he would give them s1 day for each day they sit after beating the record.