Milford chronicle., 1931-06-05
Escaped From Leaking
Boats, Snakes, Tarantu-
las And Ticks. Principal
Object Was To Make A
Full Picture Study Of
The Ingredients That
Go Into Hires Root Beer

Monday morning Mr.. Tropea took
two pictures of the Senior Glass.
With him was Mr.. Carl c. Roper, an
illustrative photographer, who has a
studio at Eleventh and Chestnut
streets, Philadelphia. Miss Alden
appointed me to interview Mr.. Roper
and get him to tell me some of his
interesting experiences. Mr.. Roper is
tall athletic man of about forty.
He has white hair, which he said,
runs in the family. During the war
he was drafted into the emergency
feet and got as far as the Hog Is
land Ship Yards. There he took
ninety per cent of all the official
negatives made for the government
of the work in the ship yards.
He has taken films for the movies
many times. One of his experiences
was riding. a coW-catcher on a loco
motive from ten o'clock in the NOR
ming until four o'clock in the af-
ternoOn, Ahead of the locomotive
was a rotary snow plow throwing UP
a bank of snow thirty-eight feet
deep. The altitude was over ten
thousand feet in spur of the Andes
Mountains. .
In 1920 Mr.. Roper left for nine
months trip through the countries OF
Central and South America in the
interests of the Hires Root Beer
Company. He left on the twenty.
seventh of December from New York
harbor in a binding snOwstorm.
Five days later the boat docked in
Jamaica with the temperature at
one hundred and twenty degrees in
the shade: He travelled through
fourteen foreign countries alone
with full equipment. His principal
object was to make full picture
study Of the ingredients that go into
Hires Root Beer.
In Jamaica he went into the in
terror to Central Catalina with an
altitude of over thousand feet, as
ginger, which he was to photograph,
does not grow at lower level. From
there he went to Cuba where he
spent three weeks on a Hires sugar
plantation. Here he took pictures
of the cane being cut, hauled in, go
ing through the different processes
and emerging as raw sugar. He CALL
ed It raw sugar for it has browniSh
color and has to be further refined
upon reaching the United States. |
From here his itinerary led him to
the town of Papantala, Mexico. To
reach this place he had half days |
journey by motor boat and then a |
full days journey on the back of I
mule. Here he took pictures of the |
vanilla bean. Upon coming back |
down the Ramona River they ran |
into a tropical storm. 1t was six
O'Clock at night and no cover under
which to get. They had to stay out
in the open boat and take it. After
a long vigil at the wheel, he laid
down and went to sleep. When he
woke up he thought he was in the
river for the boat was nearly full of
water and he was swimming for his
life. Another party did not have
such good luck as to escape, for a
boat just like theirs sank with twen-
ty people on board and nothing was
ever heard from it again. From here
the shortest route was to New Or
leans where he caught boat from
New York to Honduras. He went in
to the interior of this country to get
pictures of the Sarsaparilla plant.
From there he took a motor boat to
where he spent nine days
in the capital, Guatemala City. Then
by steamer to San Jose to the other
countries of Central America. Here I
he passed through the Panama Can
al to the City of Colon. To Gallo,
Peru was his next trip. He spent
one day at each of the five parts of
Peru and then on to VALPARAISO, {
Chile. At different points he photo ]
graphed the highest points at which
Root Beer was sold. By train he '
went to BuenOs Aires. He next vis- {
tied Monte Validate, Uruguay, TAX !
ing train to the interior where he {
the Yerla-Matte tree. t
Matte, one of the sixteen products t
used in Hires Root Beer, is made
from the leaves of the Yerba-Matte
.ree. It is called the holly tree of {
South America. It's juice is used by
he natives as a strengthening tea.
Next he made an interesting study .
If a snake farm in San Paula. Here :
lie entered rattlesnake den to make
lose to nature pictures of them. He :
aid he was not afraid as the atten-
lants were close by and they had
Jlenty of serum for snake bites. On a
o Rio de Janerio where he caught v
steamer for New York and home. Q
Is. the citizens of the United States I
ay when they are in South Ameri- c
a and starting home, Back to Gods J
COUNTRY"
On this trip he took 10000 feet of :
I'm. Films were hard to keep dry =
o he packed them in metal cylin- :
ers sealed with wax. Some of the !.
roubie he had was in not being able /"
. speak more than dozen words