The Washington times., 1933-03-13
ROBINSON
! LAUDS QUAKE.
. HERO|SM
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(Continued from Page 81
= fear. Fire is bad-but we can
fight fire. Flood is bad-but we
? can escape flood. Disease is bad
but we can control disease. But
there is no control of earthquakes
no. warning or escape.
Earthquake fear is still stark,
Jungle horror. Men should go
jungle mad, feeling that mon
Strous quiver which is like no
other nightmare. And they do!
Don't let any of them tell you
that they don't. Never a human
being-regardleSs of age, color,
background, or breeding - IN t
doesn't inwardly go drooly daft
when the world turns upside
down.
Madness-never doubt ton
those hvi6 faces racing through
the m angled streets-ducking,
lodging, cringing from a sky
gone crazy with hurting bricks,
tiles, telegraph poles, cornices,
chimneys. .leaping in eat,
Sprawling frog Jumps across pave
ments gone CHASTITY with a red
slobber of things that still jerked
and squeaked.
Recovery Is Quick
Men mad as monkeys racing
down mangled streets-and plenty
of reason for that madness. And
yet
You can bet on people!
For, within an hour, those
same mad men and women were
working to put California to-
gether again!
Working, some of them, while
the world wallowed. You dig up
stories-
There's the one about young
Forrest Brirkerhoff, who was
switchboard operator at the Do
minguez substation of the Pacific
Electric Railway. A biggish, open
place-plenty of room to escape.
With the first quiver he could
have gone. But who, then, would
throw the switch that meant
Sa1ety Tor thousands?
He had % seconds in Which to
decide-with that old. selfish,
Jungle panic screeching in his
skull and not a civilized voice to
tell him to stay. But the big
shots had trusted him. At how
much per month, I wonder. What.
ever the price, he wasn't thinking
of that then-with death hanging
at the end of a little lever. And
he isn't worrying about it now,
either. For his face was smiling
when they found it, unmarried, in
the bloody huddle of what had
been his body.
-. Shelter Man a Hero
There was James Brodie, %, as
Sistant manager of the Fox I'M
perial Theater in Linwood. Not
q very big house Friday night
only 100. But two men can make
q riot if madness strikes. And
when the floor began to loop, like
o waking snake, there in that
narrow darkness-hell busted
loose. They'd never have gotten
out, with all those late afternoon
babies
But Jim Brodie took it laugh.
ing. .herded them together with
a grin. "a comforting pressure
around an old woman's shoulder.
q pat on a frightened youngsters
head a good natured nudge at
some big fellow babbling ga-ga.
= Then, when at last they were all
safe, he thought of himself.
! Started to 60
Somewhere. where earthquakes
don't matter but heroes do, Jim
knows the answers today!
Don't believe in honesty the
way you used to? All these buns
and moocherS-
Story of Surgeon
Listen to this one about busy
surgeon. Office crammed with
glittering cabinets of tools. Tools
like that cost a lot any time.
Nowadays it's like endowing a
museum. Mostly you don't think
of anything but to get going
when earthquake hits.
But that doctor must have
thought about those tools. >.
heaved a mighty sigh of regret
F.. when he saw daylight busting in
and surgery busting out. Worth
their weight in diamonds. those
imported scientific treasures. And
: all those dimeless, jobless men
and women waiting below. What
a gift from the gods that would
be! Damn!
Scrambled down 10 stories with
most of the house pounding after.
Hurdled the last 10 feet into
the street
And landed almost on top of
his pile of tools!
I'VE thought you'd be needing
'em mighty quick now, doc" NUT
tered an old timer, thin face as
gray a rag as his tattered JEAN.
$50 we stopped long enough to
gather 'em up"
p. Stopped long enough to gather
up mercy tools for a man they'd
never seen. with each split Sec
ond raining ravelled death on
their bending heads.
And you've been doubling hui
man decency!
y Foreign & Domestic