Evening Star Newspaper, June 4, 1922, Page 67

THE SUNbAY STAR; WASHINGTON, ). D. C, JUNE 4, 1922—PART 4. Easing Inez Back to Spring Trilby and Friends Accidentally Help to Close a Swell Resort Hotel—Put to Flight by a Frisky Bankers’ Convention—Back to New York After Failure to Plunge Into Mad Whirl of Life Among the Gay Upper Crusters. BY SEWELL FORD. | DON'T care how peeved Bill | Bryan gets about it, if he should | happen to listen in on this, but | my bet is that Darwig had the true dope, after all. We do trace| back to the chattering. hairy tribes that paraded through prehistoric tree- tops holding onto each othe: talils. For one of our strong points is that we still like to play follow-your-lead- er. If you don't believe it watch the new summer styles spread from West 57th street, New York, to Skowhegan, Me.; Toms River, N. J.: La Jolla. Cal and Moose Jaw., B. C. Not only as| to sleeves and blou ¢s of peri- winkle Blue, dbut as to soft collar| bands for young hicks and the width of their straw hat brims Then take a flash our little bunch of serious tourists. shifting plans for a straightaway jump from | Florida to Broadway. and making a | half-way stop. just Wecause we'd been | tipped off that it was the smart thing | to do. Of course, they don’t put _\uu' in a cage for anything like that, but| 1t could be submitted as Exhibit M if the case ever came to irial 1 P NOT that we felt a bit sheepish in 2N followifg the trail of what Duddy Scott had referred to as the be ple. Never a bleat'out of any of us t peo- Instead we were a bit chesty over it at 2 | Lot sweller. ain't it?" says Inez. “Stoppin’ off. eh? ‘Absolutely,” says I “Shows you're not traveling on round-trip tickets. for one thing; and that you don't care how often Hortense packs and un- packs.” . | “Hortense?’ says Inez. gawping around. “Who's she “She’s past tense for some, present tense for others, and future for us?" says L “I was using Hortense as the group or cluster name for maids in general” ! “Huh!" grunted Inez. "What you wanna talk so much for when,it's hot like this?" | And she was right. that. For when you'rs ambling up through the middle of Florida early in May. cozily shu! up with forty other people in a steel car. you need to save most of your breath to cool your disposition 1 put in the next half hour invent- ing a Pullman car that would be water-jacketed and have air at a an take through thé radiator. For win- ter use you could sim warm the | water. 1 had added a movie screen to one end, radie connections for every seat, a tipless porter who dust- ed you with a vacuum brush. and 1| was just debating whether T should| accept a Foyalty of so much a year of sting 'em for a_lump sum when—well. about then [ must have dozed off. for when 1 roused up again we were stopping at a station, and right oppo- site us a gang of darkies was load- ing a car with watermelons. ummertime, eh?’ remarks Inez. mapping her fair brow and smearing a streak of soft-coal dust cutely across her countenance “It has all the earmarks of season down here.” T agrees ‘And it surely did. The paim@tos and long-leafed pines looked hot and did the sandy streets of town we rolled throush. We were in midsummer. no matter what the caléndar said. We had been eating green corn. Florida peaches. Florida plums, and now here were the watermelon “I guess it's hot place. too.” suggests Inez “I don’'t see how it can savs T | P HAT night as we pulled Jacksonville we had the hide the heavy blankets and put the electric fan on at full speed. T ex- peet it's the refined and ladylike act. | too, to complain that you never rest well on a sleeper. 1 used to think it couldn't be done. and for the first fow times that 1 climbed into a berth i T'd look forward to a night of toss- ing around. But I must have a crude streak my make-up or else I'm Aistantly related to the Pullman fam (1ly. Anyway, the one spot where I'm sure of getting a good eight or nine { hour snooze is when I'm buttoned in | ! behind the green rep curtains. Of course, you can't tear off the slumber in one continuous strip. the way you can at home. 1 could if they'd only keep the old train bowl- ing along. But they're not apt to do that; anyway, not on these southern lines, for they surely pull some queer stuff at night with what is supposed to be a through train. They make stops that you can’t dope out at all, way off in the country at dinky little stations or sometimes at no station at all; for water, maybe, or at junc- tions. Tt's the sudden stillness that wakes you up. after the steady rattle and bang of the wheels. And generally. out there in the dark and often only a few feet from your pillow, two per- fect strangers will appear from some- where and proceed to get chatty with each other. This time, at some point in Georgia or South Carolina, they stopped under my window, and one man tried to sell the other a second- hand flivver. Say, I've heard Lizzie owners get enthusiastic over their flying wash- boilers before, but I never listened to one who was so really eloquent adout his machine as this bird. Ac- . cording to him, that little car of his could outpull and outrun anything ever built to g0 on wheels. He was right there with a record of past per- formances and all the upkeep statis- tics. *“Why, lissen, Stacy," says he. “You know that ail-fired. long hill jest be- hind Doedleburg, where Jim .Tuttle got stuck last fall with that new six- ssvlinder bus of hisn? Weli, sir, I <hit that comin’ home from town one night last week in th' pourin’ rain, an’ besides the old woman.and the 4ye kids inside I had a new kitchen stove, two kegs of nails and three bunches of green pine shingles tied onto the runnin’ boards. Did she lay down on me? No, sir! Took us up on high with never a knock, and when we went past the Gillis place st the top she musta been makin’® blamed near 35 an hour.” “Aw, come off, Lem!" protests the other. “That's better work'n any filvver 1 ever heard of could do. Ain't got any special duflickers on that engine of yours, have you?" “Well, Stacey,t says Lem, "I ain’t that Aus: S0 the little in that Carolina help it out of porter iaiwaah | mot | just getting on their spring dress.” | througn | make the grade in" “I'll_have to have a pressing job | done on my soup-and-fish outfity" adds Barry. “Eut what about Uncle Nels? How will he get by without | tellin® everybo, the fact 1s I have. Mighty spi “What, for instance?” Sttcey. s demands kind of a secret,” says Lem “But you know that oldest boy of mine, Buster? He's been workin' in garage down to Raleigh. Came home one Saturday night with some- thing in a gunny sack. Next day he jest naturally took the flivver apart, and before dinner time he'd fitted her with a new pair of glands out of a high-priced car.” * % ¥ % VW HET Stacey shot from the| hip ai that, or reached out and hit him with a coupling pin, 1 shall never know, for just about then our wandering locomotive came sneaking | back. bumped up with a crash that| set evervthing jingling in nine cars, a “PARDON, MISS,” SAYS HE, “BUT IT . * IS ALMOST THE THIS DURING THE ND OF THE SEASON, YOU SE LAST WEEK. IT IS ALWAYS LIKE and then after a series of shrill toots | their pictures printed in the Sunday|And when we tried to get to the desk the train under way again. And in three minutes. more or less, I had | forgotten and forgiven Lem and was | being lulled to sleep once more by | the rap-trip-a-trap of the rails and | supplements or their doings noted in the society columns. One distin- guished appearing old boy who wore his eyeglasses on a broad black rib- hon I was sure ought to be somebody the soothing hum of the electric fan. |special, and I nudged Barry to see It must have been nearly § o'clock |if he couldn't place him Barry next morning when I did my death- wasn't certain, but thought he might defying stunt of shinning down from be a Goelet. or possibly one of the the upper without the aid of the por- ' Goulds. And a little later. as we ter stepladder and oozed into the wandered through the almost empty lower berth, where I found Inez with | first-floor corridors, we found him be- her nose pressed against the pane. [ hind the ‘counter of a jewelry shop. Look. Trilby May!" says she, ex-|and he tried to sell me a string of ted e leaves! New ones | synthetic pearls. 1 “You'rg quite right, Inez” says L | “Maybe all the regular folks arc “Regular oaks at that. And they're | out golfing or motoring and don't eat “Spring!” says Inez. and summer already.” “But now we're slipping back | again.” I “If you don't believe | it take a sniff of that air straining | through the dust sheet. Some pep “We had that | in |and life th that, eh? Real Nunh} Carolina mountain air. for the love of Mik that is. And| Inez. throw on | s make a break | for ng room. I'm going to feel the need of some bacon and eggs and hot coffee very soon.” | Cvidently Inez had similar long- | ings. for she made a quick getaway | and in less than twenty minutes we | were in the dining car, where we| found Uncle Nels and Barry half way | breakfast. What more | cheering. either. than a varnished diner. espe- like this, with flashing on the sliding past waiter | tray over your| home was never like | is comfy bright, cially the crisp ilverware, outside, juggling a read? T this “Well." savs Barry. “we're due at this Pineland joint about 10:30." or newly on a morning sunshine new scehes and a smiling darky loaded ¥ “Then we get in with them smart setters, e asks Uncle Nels “That's according to the hunch we got from our elegant friend on the “And I hope we all sporty enough to vacht," have costumes ve I a dinner coat?" ! “Oh, he'll have to gussie up in his| white serge,” savs L “and if the head waiter looks shocked. we'll explain that he's an eccentric millionaire who never wears black clothes.” * ok oxox NYWAY, we were all set for a plunge into the mad whirl of life among the gay upper crusters, al- though I suspect most of us were a bit nervous over the prospect. 1 had made Inez promise not to exer- cise her gum except in the privacy of her own room, and I'd warned Uncle Nels once more that he must do all his finger-nail amputating be- fore we got there. So I was a little Telieved, whep we finally pulled into the Pineland statian, to notice that we had the station bus all to our- selves. “Ain't no other swells gettin' off here?" asks Inez. ems not.” says I they're all on hand." At least, the doorman and the bell- hops seemed glad to see us, and even the room clerk gave us a friendly greeting. O, yes, he could give us a whol: suite with adjoining rooms. Il say they were nice quarters, too, wlith plenty of outside windows and a fine view out acrgss the hills. And when yow've been in flat Florida for a few weeks even a mound as big as a haystack looks good. It wasn’t until we grouped our- “Probably | in the middle of the day, | where, do the; 1 suggests. “Lét's get a car and go scouting around for ‘em.” * oxow % RUT down at the golf club only a few players were starting off, | and although we drove around the country for a couple of hours, we met no® high-powered touring cars filled with haughty piutes. However, it was good fun rolling over the red cla roads through the pines and oa | seeing the spring flowers in the flelds, and filling our lungs with the bracing air. “Anyway,” says Barry, “if they're not here they're missing out on some- thing worth while. They don’'t make much better weather than this any- That night at dianer the big din- ing room was even more lonesome than at noon. and although we all came down dolled in our best. we found very little competition. Fully half of the handful of guests were in street clothes. and by the pile of hand luggage and golf bags stacked in the lobby we guessed that “they were ready to flit on the evening train. “I thought this was a swell place.” complains Inez. “What's the matter with everybody?" “That's one of the little mysteries I mean to get to the bottom of as soon as I've finished my soup.” says I “Here, you!" and I signaled for the imposing head- waiter to come over. ’ S “Having a smallpox scare here, or what?" says L “Oh, no, miss! he gasps. “Then what has happened to all your guests?" I goes on. “You're not going to run a big establishment like this for just us, are you?" He shrugs his shoulders. “Pardon, miss.” says he, “buf it is almost the end of the season, you see. It is al- ways like this during the last week.” “I see.” says I. “We're taileneders, as it were? Well, we hadn’t figured on that exactly. T've néver helped to close up a resort hotel, but I can imagine it isn't a very exciting pastime. By tomdrrow or next day 1 suppose we'll be having our meals in the kitchen, eh?” Vo, miss,” says he. “By tomorrow there will be plenty of company for you. The bankers are coming.” “Bankers?’ says I, gawping. “State convention, Miss” says he. “We have three or four hundred booked. Some of them will be show- ing up tonight.” * %k %k X E was right. During the evening a dozenltor more touring cars drove up and unloaded, but in a big hotel like that half a hundred new arrivals make no showing at all. They seemed to be_quiet, smah-town people, these North Carolina bankers and their wives, and we watched them filter In with mild curiosity. Most- of them acted a-bit shy and awed by the size of the place, and Nothing like that.” selves for the grand entry into the Mife few who got together in groups dining room at luncheon time' that I got my first jar. I had expected to crash In among a mob of smart folks wearing zippy sport clothes and chat- tering society gossip. And here was this whaling big dining room, with & hundred or more tables, a head waiter and three assistants, and a young army of waitresses and bus boys all in white—and not more than a dozen guests, sitting around lone- some by twos and threes. “Are we too early or too late?’ whispers Barry. “Search me™ says I be around somewhere.” But we couldn’t find ‘em. - A few more dfd straggle in before we had finished our meal, but only three or four out of the whole lot looked like the kind who were ‘used to having “They must hardly spoke aBove a whisper. But say, by the next noon all was changed. Convention' delégates had Dbeen swarming in all the morning by rail and motor utnil the.lobby, corri- dors and verandas Were fuil of them. They pinned on badges and began to get acquainted. Committee chairmen buzzed around genial and folkey. Old friends met and slapped each other on the back and introduced their wive An announcer with a megaphone roared out-the program for the day. And at luncheon they crowded the big dining reom so full that we were shoved Into.a.corner and almost forgotten by the head waiter. Cut-up members. began to Take themselves heard. No doubt the lles they pulled were comie enough, but we weren't In on . thém_at all. Sigide out in the front office we found them lined up three deep. registering, a ing questions about this and that, of the clerks. We pushed our way through mob and finally found a clear space at ene end of a long parlor, where we could talk without shouting. As usual, Inez was the one to state her I mind freely “I don't call this swell.” says she. messy." ‘m afraid you're right. Tnez.” says “I wouldn’'t mind one banker, or They're apt to be rather nice, decent people, conservative and some- at cold in the eve, especially when vou're trying to cash a check: but | Renerally pleasant enough after vou get to know ‘em. I suppose I cowid | stand mixing with half a dozen at a time. Being mobhed by hankers is | a different proposition. though. And | that's about what this amounts to. They started in mild enough, but now they own the hotel.” “We might snitch a few badges and ring in as bankers ourselves.” suggests Barry. “You'd never qualify, Barry.” says You don’t look the part. No e either got to stick it out or go somewhere else” | “We. ain't been Springs place yet," “Me." says Inez. | of North Carolina. New York." |r two to that White .Uncle Nels. e seen enough 1 wanna go by ko & * ¥ % % "BRILIJA.\'T thought, Inez!" says I, *“This idea of being mixed up in a convention. but not part of it, is poor stuff. And I don’t care whether |there are any smart people on 5th avenue as early as this or not. Even the shop girl 8appers will look good to me. Also I've been living in a trunk and stitcase so long that it will seem perfectly heavenly to get back to the old studio and spread out once more. Let's go. Get hold of that head porter, Barry, and see how =oon he can dig up reservations. Buy him, if necessary; I'm sure Uncle Nels will finance a move like that.” “You mean I gotta give somebody more tips?” says Uncle Nels. “Well, here's half a dollar.” “For a drawing room and section!” says I. “Why, a head porter wouldn't get you a seat in the station bus for that. Better make it a five and then we may stand some chance of get- ting out of here tonight.” Uncle Nels groans, but he come across with the money. “All righ says he, “so long as we get home quick. After that I don't tip nobody for a year." And it's wonderful how accommo- dating these people will be after they've been properly insulted. By 9 o'clock that evening, just as the bankers- were starting in on what promised to be a big night, we slip- ped away from the merry throng and boarded a side-tracked sleeper that was waiting to be picked up by a through train bound north. It was along about noon next day. and somewhere near Trenton, that Ines got her first real homgcoming thrill. “Looks: Trilby May!” she exclaimed, grabbing me by the arm. “Apple blossoms!” “Sure enough,” says L orchard full of ‘em, all white, like a huge bouquet. “Pretty, eh?’ says Inez. “We saw orange blossoms, too, in Florida. Not 50 nice as these, I think.” “For once, Inez,” says I, “our wave lengths are in tune. No poet would agree with us, I expect, and any na- tive of Florida who heard us would probably want to indict us for trea- gon; but I'm trailing right along with you there. Any scrubby old apple tree with half a bloom on it has got it all over the finest orange tree that ever put on all the blossoms it could’ That is, so far as looks go. And If I'm ever a bride—" “When you and that Barry Platt gonna get married?” demands Inez. “Switch it, Inez” says L “We were talking merely about apple “A whole pink and blossoms. There are some more. And just think, old dear, before you know it we'll be back in New York. - We can have dinner tonight at Tortoni's.” “Ah,h, feet, yes?’ “You've sald says Inez. “Grilled pigs' it, Ines” says I. “Gosh, isnt it great to be home once more!" e (Copyright, 1922, by Sewell Ford) generally monopolizing the attention | the | BOOZE BURGLARS PREY UPON ~ HOME AND BOOTLEGGER ALIKE H. SMITH. LMOST any morning when you take up your newspaper you will find further adventur. of the booze burglars. The cellar of a conspicuous millionaire has been broken into and a couple of hundred thousand dollars’ worth of fine wines has been carted off. Mr Somebody has returned from Euro to find the liquor vaults at his coun- fry home sadly empty. has been entered in the night many barrels of choice red liquor are somewhere, but not there. The melancholy part about is that factory defense. wife's jewels ably protected stolen he it ail 1 a man insured he is rea If the gem n buy others as g has his son- are with A warehouse | and | there seemx to he no satis- | the proceeds of his policies. But if a man's vintages go. no insurance will do him much good or greatly solace his palate. Fine n not be replaced today even if one is willing ‘0 go to the bootleggers, vio- late the Jaw «nd pay the extortionate prices. Again, insurance on drink- ables is high priced. not easy to get and never issued in sufficient amount wines 10 cover the replacement value of stocKs in hand, Yet the companies which do issue insurance policies on liquors have their side of the story to tell. They have paid losses of $3.000,000 within the single year 1921, they assert, and they estimate that this figure covers probably only one-third of the actual thefts in,wet goods * ok x % REFORE prohibition, liquor stealing was confined to bartenders, but- lers and maldservants. The stuff that Areams are made of wasn't valuable enough to take a risk for When a man could go round the corner and buy good éhampagne for $30 a case and fine rye for $11, who would bother to steal it? But when doubtful spark- Ning wines bring from $100 to $150 a dozen quarts, and fair whiskies as much, that's a different matter. A whole new criminal population has been created by ' these exorbitant values, just as happened when silks went skyrocketing during the war. New York city and the outlying country places of its residents have been the special victims of one set of booze burglars. There has been some talk, because of the similarity in technique displayed by these fel- lows, of a rhaster mind and a cen- tralized traffic in burglarized liquors, but there is no real foundation for is theory. Jewel robbers alwavs operate in very much the same man- ner, but no one supposes that they are all working under one guiding intelligence. TYet there is a certain loose centralization to the booze bur- glar business. It was not created by them,. but. existed ready made— another of the children of prohibi- tion. Bootlegged liquor in New York ic distributed today, more or less ex- clusively, through certain definite channels. The independent hootleg- ger has to go to these people and make an arrangement with them or he is soon out of business and prob- ably in jail. Thus stolen drinkables also pass through this central organi- zation, at least in large part, but the “big fellows” don’t direct the steal- ing. They simply ask no questions. take their part of the graft and allow the stolen goods te be sold without much risk to the seller, who is either the thief or his agent. * % ok * VWHO the booze burglars are and how they opewate is one of the most interesting features of the un- derworld story of prohibition. In parts these people are old offenders. Some were house burglars and jewel robbers before prohibition made life simpler for them. Others were pre- viously honest and respectable peo- ple who have been eorrupted by op- portunity and temptation. The house burglar and jewel rob- ber saw at the beginning of things that liquor provided a kind of loot for which there was an existing. highly organized and safely protected distribution organization catering to 2 large and constant demand. It was not like stealing the silver or jew- elry of a rich family and then being forced to dispose of the stuff to a fence at a cut-throat price, the fence taking the risks of disposal. Liquor was and Is constantly being dealt in largely and quasi openly. In most cases the man whose drinkables are stolen has also been guilty of some technical violation of the prohibition law and is in no Pposition to raise much of a row. So, Why not steal liquor, dispose of it at a high price and make a fortune? Safer, saner and more lucrative than any other form of crime. To operate this game successfully the housebreaker and jewel robber needed to do nothfng new in their professions. This type of criminal has always operated through cor- rupted servants. Each gang has always had in its employ butlers and woman servants who were got into the houses of wealthy people by one subterfuge or the other. The crooked servants surveyed the house, found out where the valuables were hidden and how they might pe reached. This done, the actual burglar or jewel rob- ber appeared on the scene and “did his stuff.” Where there was no chance of introducing a member of the gang into ¢he house, the burglars set about luring and corrupting one of the servants. It was often possi- ble-to find chauffeurs, butiers, valets and other man servants, who would | 3 Owner of Cellar Stocks Faces Hope- less Situation When Liquor Is Carried Away—Insurance Cannot Make GOOd His Loss—One Man Paid $22.000 for Liquid Goods, Only to Have Them Stolen Almost Immediately by Those Who Receive& His Money—Thirsty Party at Dinner Finds Only Water When Bottles Are Opened. | | masters and been tempted to arrange | wTHI RICH NEW YORKER'S BOOTLEGGERS TURNED BURG | ARS | AND STOLE THE $22000 WORTH OF LIQUORS THEY HAD SOLD HIM THAT DAY.” listen to their reason. In other in-| stances good looking young crooks| were employed to court the maids, | win them over and then use them. 3 * % x ¥ | PRECISELY the same thing is being | done in the matter of the liquor burglars. At least half of them are | inside jobs or jobs done with help)] from inside. In other cases the serv- | ants have needed no outside stimu- lus to wrongdoing. They have seen the piled-up liquid wealth of thelr | for its theft. Several cases of this| sort came to public notice in New York last year and many others got | no airing. But the older criminals also often operate without the aid'of venal servants. Attacks of this sort are generally made against unoccupied houses whose owners have been rash enough not to remove their stores of | liquor. In such cases it is merely a question of information gathering The crooks must be sure that the house they are about to rob actually has a worth-while stock of liquor in the cellars. Here, again, a servant may be used as scout and supplier of the needed detalls, but there are many other ways of coming into possession of accurate knowledge. The robbers may note the house of some convivial family and watch it. at the end of the season, to s whether the surplus stocks are haul- ed back to the city when the season in the country closes. The crooks have ways of watching the removal permits in the office of the prohibition director. They know that Mr. Rich- ley has not been permitted to move his supply to the city from his subur- ban place and they take advantage of this fact. In other instances the employes of burglar alarm com- panies have beer. bought. A man has an electric burglar alarnt attached to his wine cellar door. The me- chapic who installs the device sees the heavy stocks of liquors and un- consciously calculates the value. A little later he is dismissed by his company or he needs money badly or he is approached by the booze burglars. He turns in all the infor- mation he has, including the secret of the ‘burglar alarm—and the rest can be guessed.. . * X ¥ % INALLY, there is the case of the L. ‘rich New Yorker who dealt with what he supposed to be a select gang of bootleggers. He had no liquor in his country place, was not permitted | | to move any out from town house and lightly turned to law violation to stock his cellar. He bought about $22.000 worth of whiskies. wines and cordials from the bootleggers and had it transported to his Long Island | home. paying cash on delivery ac- cording to the agreement. But the | same night his bootleggers turned | burglars, entered the house before any adequate locks or burglar alarms had been installed agd back their cargo of liquors, carting it off in two large motor truc There | was no complaint to the police, for the wealthy gentieman was himself guilty of law-breaking and knew it He hired private detectives, offered to pay a second §22.000 for the re- | turn of his drinkables, spent a good | deal of money on various investiga- tions and finally got no satisfaction | beyond ascertaining that his own bootleggers had robbed him Many strange and uncomfortable contretemps have arisen out of this looting of private cellars. One gen- tleman had invited a large and thirsty party of guests to dinner. but the night before his function his cel- lar was broken gito and every bottle carted away. Another man opened the Chateau Yquem with a great flourish at a din- | ner and poured out fine clear water. He called for another bottle, with similar results. Investigation show- ed that his butler had openad every bottle in the wine closet. disposed of the contents, refilled the bottles and skillfully recorked them. It was an easy coup, for his employer drank only on festive occasions. No wine had been served in months. T have seen it said in the news-} papers that the booze burglars oper- | ate by means of high-powered mo- tors, racing cars and the like, and I expect to read next that they are employing airplanes. The facts of the cellar-robbing business are much | more commonplace. Nothing is used | except motor trucks of the large.| siow, heavy type, and always cov-| ered. The huge. innocent looking moving van is the favorite vehicle of the robbers. Capacity, and not | speed, is the desired thing. The bur- glars find a house, that is accessible. break in or are admitted by servants, carry the liquor out to the walting truck; load it and drive away to the chosen ‘refuge, where the liquor is ‘Bidden-yntil'it ean be sold. apparent that t ) any reason- s kind of w & person ek cannot be carried ut th ough ta n probably w kind of influen The booze | bu use they want arrunge for their truck cording to amoun swn to be available range for some pl liquor- such e a officers and st mer ique ed wit How thes all these off eatlemen is a ques tion wh ma ber bootlegge tomers, along the drive . and drive off with te and cont ing when he his own goods “They get it from Ca much.” he said. “and line. Then they sell i <o much more. You load and start for New ¥ comes the s up guys along the Toads, al and they're likely to any minute gotta be on t ning game i and ready shoot This partic man in the liquor transport long, but he to the po z trip from Canada was cked by the hold-up men ad to go hack to driving trucks for other men he fresh start But & second was more fe ate and he has reached the stage. after a dozen or more where it doesn’t matter m now and then bandits do get h P DS ey Plating on Aluminum. GOME there were reported = len ted tim detail ethor for plating on aluminum. an achieve- ment that had been striven for with little success. The chief diffi- cuity appears to arise from an in- visible filn which forms on aiumi- num when esposed to the air By the method mentioned this is solved off in a bath c soluble fluorides. A little free drofluoric acid appears to act Then a coating of zine is formed on and the alvminum in 2 plaging batt upon this coating copper. silver and’ other metals may be deposited In order to form a gold plating the zine covering the aluminum must first be coated thinly with copper. as otherwise the gold sinks o the zinc. and in a few weeks almost dis- appears Wettest Place on Earth. the wettest place in the world Cherrapunji. in the Indian province of Assam. Ducing the last decade the average annual rainfall was nearly thirty-seven feet. Next came the environs of Bombay, with about half of that figure. But it should be noted in T appears that is that at the station of Debundscha Kamerun, thirty-four feet of “r tell annually during the same period, chiefly in summer. The neighborhood of warm seas and high mountains is the prineipal cause of these extraordinary rainfalls. It ma be that the extension of meteorological observation will show other zones of rainfall more intense than has hitherto been believed, as in Java and Sumat Curious Cactus. I the Rincon vallex. eighteen miles from Tucson, Ariz., is a giant cac- tus the summit of which has been 80 deformed as to make it an object of curiosity to visitors. The inhabitants of the valley are proud of their freak cactus and refuse to allow botanists to cut the head in order to determine the cause of the deformation *The botanists think it is due to the work of insects. but the country peo- ple believe that a stroke of lightning was the determining cause. This spe cles of cactus, the Cereus, not mni quéntly develops strange forms. this case the head has dssumed the appearance of & gigantic caulifiowpe’ ..