The Washington times., 1938-08-23
Never Fool With the Weather
DAILY SHORT STORY
HLIADIEC MoCIuDK
~~By CHARLES McGUIRK,

A I the Air Station we were
IA all very much interested
in Jerry Baxter's wild project
even if those of us who were IL
the Astrological Office were
frankly skeptical. Jerry had
been dropped from the Naval
Reserve for reckless flying,
and we were all sorry to see
him 90, for he was a likable
fellow and popular with every
one.
After that he had gone from one
Drained project to another
almost invariably ending up in hot
water.
First he was involved in a raid
on a gambling ship that was blown
ashore during a hurricane. Then
there was some talk of his run
ming alien Chinese across from
Cuba, with the Coast Guard over
hauling his powerboat and finding
only the crew aboard.
JERRY'S ROMAN GAMES"
Our next word of him. as usual,
was from the newspapers. He had
been jailed in Miami for running
a sort of Sea-going slaughter-houSe
as public entertainment: he had
built a huge concrete tank, with
plate glass portfolios for specta-
tors, and was staging battles to the
death between sharks, swordflSh,
Sting.rays, barracuda, and every
other kind of Sea.monSter he could
capture or buy.
Miami was going crazy over the
spectacle, and the betting was run
ming higher than on the horses,
dogs, or fights. Then the gamblers
called in the S. P. C. A., who closed
his Roman Games" in great hor-
ror and ran him out of town.
He collected a marvellous set OF
motion pictures of the sea-mon-
Sters tearing each other to pieces,
but most of the film was so CORY
that it could never pass the cen
SorS.
Discouraged by American
equeamishness, he flew over to
Havana to try to get the Cubans
interested, but when the deal
dragged out for several days, he
became impatient and left in dis
gust.
Not long after that, he barged
into the Astrological office, en-
chanted by new idea. Flying
back from Havana on a Clipper
Ship, he had seen a water-spout,
and tried unsuccessfully to bribe
the pilot to fly closer so that he
could get a better look at it.
FILMING FASCINATING
Fascinated by the subject, he
had found by investigation that
good photographs of water-Spouts
and tornadoes were rare, and that
motion pictures of these phe-
nomena were virtually non-exiS-
tent.
I'm going to film a twister," he
told us, "and I want you to help
me find one. I've got all the equip
ment, but I need the help of your
weather experience"
AS usual, he had persuaded
someone to back him in his fantas-
tic scheme, and he had a fast
Single-seater biplane equipped with
an electrically operated movie
camera mounted ingeniously be-
hind the cockpit so that it could
be pointed horizontally in any di-
rection.
We were interested, but dubious.
We warned him of the dangers in
volved in such an attempt. "You
know what happens to pilots who
take chances with the weather,
don't you, Baxter?"
"Sure!' he answered. But I'm
not going to take any chances.
This ship is really built, and
there's a twin-row thousand-horSe
engine in her nose"
CAN'T BE STAGED
well, I'll think it over,' he
promised us, but he knew that
nothing on earth could keep him
from carrying out his mad at
tempt, and when the newspapers
got wind of it the only thing we
could do was to give him any in
formation which might keep him
from breaking his foolhardy neck.
We kept track of him while he
secuted all up and down the Gulf
States from Florida to the Mis-
missippi without sighting any
thing more exciting than a rain.
storm, until one day we wired him
at the New Orleans airport:
GOLD FRONT SWEEPING