Evening Star Newspaper, June 11, 1922, Page 65

'HE SUNDAY THE REAL CHARLIE CHAPLIN ' -Hero of High-brow Critics and Target of Reformers and Muckrakers ! Placidly Wonders If Either Class Will Give Him Any New Ideas—Exagger- ated Yarns About His Income—Hopes Soon to Make Big Picture After His beeh e B *“NE LAUGHS AT THE RIDICULOUS ADJ LATION OF HIGABROW CRITICS AS MUCH CLERGYMEN.” EE for his remaining in Hollywood. He AS HE DOES AT MUD-SLINGING OF SENSATION-SEEKING T [ | But the real truth of tue matter is| that Charlie hasn't hade a million dol- } lars in five vears. RE Charlie gave tite real reason 1ot, chartie infmediately suggested a bit of business for it. He would nave fit BL KARL K. KITCHEN. 'M afrald there's too much about [{ lowered in the morning and walk across Charlte Chaplin in the first St | ts amazingly fond of Douglas Fairbanks | it in a dressin; ,m'm t the bottie chapter of my book.” sald I 5 AL e o and his wife. Not only is he a daily of milk and newspaper that had been placed outside. There's no arrested mental develop- ment as far as Charlie Chaplin is con- cerned. And, unlike most of the stars home. | in this gelatin firmament, he is not suf- he dines with them, | fering with delusions of grandeur. his violin | think my best picture was Miss Pickford to me one chilly | [F{'VE Years ago this month Charlie | April afternoon at her studio. “Why, | Chaplin signed a contract with the T thought you and Charlie were the | First Natlonal to make elght two-reel closest friends”” 1 protested. “You | comedies for them for $1,075.000. The can't have too much about Charlie—the | €ighth two-recler is only nowbeing made Dublio likes to read about him." visitor at their joint doesn’t Tune studio—when he with them he comes over Beverly Hill—but their before they leave fo t a daily Night after night | To be sure. he was paid a goodly sum for ! romps with Doug m guest in “A as or p “But ‘aidl Chartie mentlon me/in his|the, extra three or ffour reela) of “The |atier watching: thelr private; ploture]| o Mads Man,® hetold me the/last e e < time I saw him. X ? Mary. Kid” but as Charlie has to pay for |show. And [ know If he ever decides| As " Sailor Made Man” was made “A score of times,” I replied. adding, | Making pictures, {t is obvlaus that | o move to New York both Mr. and Mrs. | by Harold Lloyd, his greatest and most an't you read his book.” [feret e o . T haven't had time” she| “I'll be glad when T finish the contract | answered, with such a mocking smile |and can make the kind of pictures 1| that we both burst out laughing. | want to make.” said the little pie manip- =3 . | ulator when he settled down in a quiet | T would e th i & auiet n't have thought anvthing | orner of tne Fairbanks studio for a | more about It if Charlie Chaplin hadn't [chat. A scene In the new Fairbank appeared on the scene a little later. |picture was being “shot” with the As 15 his custom, he wandered over to | COmPainment of a violin folo to © one-tenth of What | b jibanks will do everything fn their |POPUIAT Tival, it will be seen that Caarlie doesn’t take himself seriously. In fact, the only thing he is really serious about is finding a funny idea for his next picture. power to dissuade iim. I had a dozen chats with Charlie dur- ing my internment in Hollywood. Some- times I visited with him at his studio but usually I found him somewhere | the Fairban or at the Fair- | ery time I learned from bim that upset all the | 1o Our Biggest Bonanza. *MONG the wonders of America ac » " “agony.” but that didu't accepted traditions about < someifortyron BEly s earaiagosmay the Fairbanks-Pickford “Iot” after he |from talking shopespecialls about him. | In the fir<t place, e born [ the. “Big Bonanzatl of the Comstock had finished his day’s work in his own | self. lin Eng Ithough he spent his|!0de in Nevada. It was found by fol- studio on LaBrea avenue, a few biocks| “There's been no Incentive for me to vouth in t End of London and |10Wing a widening vein of silver away. And with the diabolical inten- |0 anything worth while—I don't get came 10 America as a member of an through the rocks until a tremendous ticn of siurting the conversation about | &1V ‘Téal money for these two reelers,” | English music hall act, he Bbraviny Lodv:of clchiure wasjreached, hotlyor he went on. “But soon I'll make w the light of £l and siiver, assaying more than firs himself T mentioned the fact that there i picture after my own hear: duy dn o ablaa e tie . $100 to the square foot and stretch- was quite a bit about him in Mary Pick-| “A serious plcture? 1 asked, for 1| tha e e Yiage meal | ing 30 fect across. One hundred and ford’s new book.. “Hollywood to Paris” | had heard rumors that Charlie was am- His father was a French | ¢/8ht milllon dollars were taken out —soon to be published serially. [ bitious to get away from the custard |music hall performer. Mary Pickford |°f the Big Bonanza In the ten years He smiled all over like a Cheshire cat | ple drama. 1In fact, T had even heard | visited his birthplace last fall. It is|that elapsed before it was exhausted. and “took a bow. | that H. G. Wells had agreed to write | still unmarked by’ any tablet. Yet the Big Bonanza falls into com- his next scenario. “I haven't gone C plled significantly. “I'm going to nmake | e mag: would have you b a big picture—and it may have some |lieve. His home is a modest two-story serious moments—but I'm not going to | structure that fails to arrest one's at- leave off my oid shoes or my mus! e.” | tion—even in a bungalow colony. And £ Fairbanks (Marv likes to be called by her married name) is afraid thera is too miuch about vou.” 1 went on with devilisa Intent. “For she hadn't read your book and she doesn't | krow waat nice things you wrote about her.” “Oh, was there something nice about Mary in my book?” he asked in a sur- prised raanrer. You don’'t mean to tell me that you don’t remvmber what you wrote about Mies Pickford in your ‘Trip Abroad.'™ “How could 17" he asked, adding a smile, "1 haven't even read it." * THIS double-barreied incident fe not aprocryphal. And it is typical of the lifc of the screen screams of this gelatin set. Charlie Chaplin may plete insignificance before one pos- sessed by the United States today—a bonanza that grows more productive |each year instead of becoming ex- | hausted. All the gold mines of the | entire world, taken together, have | not ylelded more since the time when Columbus discovered America than this has produced in & few years. | What 1s this biggest bonanza? The | prospector will hunt the barren { mountains and the Arctic coasts, die | frozen in the snow. perish of thirst in | the desert and never realize that the spot where the greatest treasure lies {s just the plain, average American farm! Consider the case of the American |hen. She does not lay actual golden eggs, apparently, yet the millions and milllons of eggs that our hens pro- duce annually outvalue the product of many a gold mine, and In the busy season, at the prevailing prices, the yleld of eggs from American farms realizes enough in two weeks to pay a full year's interest on our national debt In normal times. Or take the value of farm property, which is rising all the while as the American farmer becomes more pro- gressive and thrifty. The increase in the value of United States farms, as He doesn't n in live million dollar in Hollywood—as the motion a y—yet.” he re- * have been exaggerating a littls when he £aid he hadn't even read his recently published book, but I'm sure Miss Pick- ford hasn’t read it and I'm equally sure that Charlie will never read her book. The reason simple. Every big star in Hollyw so wrapped up in his own affairs that he or she has anything else. And, in is a lost art even in the homes where the stars are able to <pell out the words, But if you lock on life as Charlie = a whole. b i Chaplin does thers is no occasion to £ir uels (alaueRE R0 STy, spend a lot of time reading books— % e live stock. In one year alone the products of our farms were twice the sum of all our imports and exports, six times the amount of the capital stock of all our national banks, and between two and three times the gross earnings of all our railroads. which are simply the experience of other sople—tiieir travels, their love affairs or their philosophy. Charlie believes in having the experienca himself. He ad- mits that it may cost a little mora but it is a lot more satisfactory and, be- sides, it saves one's eyes. Consequently it is not surprising that be allowed some one cise to write his Seeing Right-side Up. “A Trip to Europe” remains his only literary effort up to date, and he con- fided to me that the only reason he was interested in its sale was the fact that he gets a royalty of 10 cents a copy. ““The bookstore in Hollywood sold 115 copies,” he told me, with considerable It occurred to one Investigator to try the effect of preventing the in- version of images on the retina. This was accomplished by means of an optical instrument that excluded from the eyes all light except that which passed through the instrument STAR, WASHINGTON, D. i remarkable part of it yet to tell. C, JUNE 11, 1922—PART 4. \Victories Over Snakes He Has Met i Described by Former Army Officer ver of ihe Zesioptent Sucie Boy’s Drink at Spring Is Interrupted by (4] was the racket they raised that m Member of the Zoological Seciety of horse took the alarm und “pulled hi Lendon, Ete. ’liln making back for the column and . . . leaving me alone in a very dangerous ACK In th 1xtl h 1 . = o the sixtien when I Co‘pperhead, Which Succumbs to Birdshot. i, wr. vesiice inakes. ihere sixteen years of & I was out on a collecting trip with my younger brother. It was a very warm epring day in New England, and we had stopped in a marshy fleld, near a quarry, to get a drink from a famous spring of clear water. I drank first, and then stood up with my loaded, double-barrel shotgun at Well, there was but one thing to follow the trail and join tle umn as soon as my legs woul to it T had trudged over the trail abou a mile or 0 when. 1o iy nite lief, I spied a couple of mounts & led horse coming my way. It was sergeant and an enlisted man Constrictor, Balked in One Attack, Creates Stir During Family Prayers—Horse’s Hoof Defeats Rattler While Command Is Hunt- rest. My brother had on a boy's cap . . L X medical outfit of th mmand ¢ e command. plus with a generous vizor to it. So when | I Indmns——thmg Boots Bear Brunt Of my own horse. They, in good, stronz he kneeled down to drink he could ettt Ihan. wiiti e ateet) or & not see across the epring. He had respectful soldier thrown in, hardly commenced to quench his thirst when, sliding toward his face across the water, came a big copper- head snake, all of a yard long. pressed their pleasure at having dis covered me and all in good shupe “We were afraid, sir horse and empty saddle came up with the column, that some of those d Sioux had got you' Late= on 4 can o Concerted Venomous Attacks—A Case of Supreme Strategy. = when your £ hot fee tasted mighty good, believe nie * ¥ % % ERHAPS the closest sort I ever had hapne that same summer. The comrm had gone into a new camp rat late in the afterncon a part the country where no man had been long t | practically owned it | hud been one of more thar | and it had just be to tel little, a€ it did on th icers of the outfit My wall tent had been pitched to the commanding “Look out for that snake, G.I” 1| velled, was looking out for sume But he only laughed, remarking men, but I was not long about it, a.d that I could not scare him out of his was soon stretched out zt full leng “THIS UNUSUAL BEHAVIOR WAS INSTAXTLY FOLLOWED BY THE LOUD AND ANGRY RATTLE OF A RATTLER COMING FROM THE DIRECTION OF HIS FOR ET." drink in that way. The reptile checked itself for an in- stant. Quick as g wink, I cooked my | fowling plece, and, bringing up in sort of a half-gun, half-pistol fash- fon, let that reptile have an ounce and an eighth of No. 10 birdshot much more quickly than it fs possi- ble to mentlon the fact in the grateful shade afforded Lv tue canvas. My head rested on my sad dle, which had been thrown on tle ground, and my carbine and guns Fad intelligent | peen placed where 1 could readiy animal had pinned the specimen |gcize them Gowsly (LOL dntention but fortu- | 45 ugual, the only part of m nately in such a way that it could not | tnat was discarded consisted reach above the hoof to inflict & bite. | o Sl 4 S A cavalry sergeant to my immedi- |ored by a thin hospital blank ate rear was off his horse in a flash. | How fong 1 slept | do whipping out his big knife as he dis- (o)1 but T do remember that 1 . and the alacrity with which | grogu it 0 O e eav pitated that rattler would ting gengation on my chest, just us if it his being decorated. MY| ome yirile chila had fallen aslecy appreciated what had hap-|pesige me and rested its head there. snake was discovered. However, rate, while the things did not end in that way, for it was soon entirely out of the trap and quletly gliding beneath a side- board at one side of the room. As My brother nearly jumped out of | this was just off the floor on castors his boots as it dawned on him like a |l felt quite relieved, and was sure flash that 1 was really not joking |that the snake would hide there until about a snake coming his way. We |the opportunity presented Itself, after | mounted. considered it afterward as quite a|prayers, to secure it. | he di little adventure, for it might have| Uncle was closing and was about | warra terminated somewhat differently. Al- |half way through a long and ardent |horse though this exceedingly dangerous|sentence with which he meant to close | pened, and before T could check it} "y came to my senses without mos- reptile does not as a rule attack man, | his supplications. He was tall and out it tore on the prairie, where it|ine o muscle, and T realized that the et it will strike, and bite If it be |slender of limb, and his black cloth |pranced around in curves and cireles | gun wag weil down and shinin suddenly and unexpectedly cornered, |trousers fitted him rather loosely. In |for several minutes, which Was 8| ooy iy my face from the nearly «pen as this one was. the attitude of prayer—that is. In|way of expressing delight at the ouUt- | gony or my tent. The peculiar heay S kneeling—there was a considerable |come of what might have had a far |y 0" motion on my chest increa open interval between his ankle on | more unpleasant ending. I 8ave full| ng 1 partly opened my eyes : |either side and the leg of the gar-|rein. letting it go until the exclte-|iizarq the cause of it. One ms a great w cov- was ell known black snake, wkich QB belongs In the group composed of |ment. As I glanced up, T at once ap- ment was blown in and it cooled | gine the effect upon me when I the “constrictors”—the dreaded boas preciated the excited state of mind down again. 1t was an unusually | ;overed that an unusually biz p being conspicuous among them—will |evinced by my brothers. Both were fine and intelligent animal, and Car-| ,yer had foinl its v T Tl sometimes attack a person without |doing all they could under the cir- |ried me safely out of not a few tight |sont ung ay coued up on my blanke: any provocation whatever. A year or | cumstances to call my attention to ' places that summer, getting into a|gymin a few :neies of my unpro- so after the above happening I was |something going on in the Immediate quicksand being one of them. T e s eaarilig ein passing along through a pine wood [neighborhood of uncle's feet ! ORI IRE Sl dE atannes FOREWIE @b near Latin's Rock, & wonderful lo-| 1 realized what was up. for the | o oo oocasion, when 1 was|moving its head toward and away cality, about three miles from the |snake had come out from beneath the ()™ *% 5 Sl g Suie Bt s e Stamford post office, in Connecticut. | sideboard and had already passed & attached o the Eame fesiment. L o di s e o eIl ays lip into one of tho Jegn of | i columi was enteriog Pryécs Gop, uncle’s pantaloons. In an instant 190 the northw termination of the | | Big Horn mountains. In one place to was upon my feet and bent on pre- | venting a scence that would surely |Our left great sandstone and other cks bounded, upon either hand, the be anything but one befitting the oc- | FoCks bo d ) | # caston, But it was too late. My (0ld “military road” Toward mid- Sadden approach startled the snake, |98y I noticed on the side of ome of S hich was bent on hiding some- |these & small—quite small—object where, even if it was compelled to |fluttering in the breeze. At once I § vself, ‘Ah, there is an In- select the inner recesses of a minis- |Said to myself, 3 dian buried there, and the skull of ter’s trousers. H S | that fellow is mine for some museum _lin the east. T the best, uncle was no lover of | " ¢ attracting an special at- Stamford was but a little village in those days, with a population around 3,000. Being out to add specimens to my bird collection, I had my gun with me. The path led into a pine wood of low trees which stood rather close together, with their lower limbs sev- eral feet above one’s head. Suddenly I felt a heavy thump on my left shoulder, as if some one had given me a friendly blow with his open hand. In an instant I realized that it was caused by a very large blacksnake when so inclined. There could b saving me should 1 receive a b the face, as a ligaiure could applied and the venem woui get in Its work, even should |and suction be piomptly apnliel Naturally, 1 kept absolut tionless, only partly opening my eyes from time to time, and you may be sure that under such circumstan a minute measures up almost to an entire day. ny e in t b on * k¥ % 4 intentionally fallen upon me ohi | . o IO e e i snakes, while at heart he had a | opion, T dropped back to the rear of [ QOMETHING was bound o happe: il " 1 very wholesome dread of them. 1Mis| )¢ column, where my outfit and am- pretty soon—ard it did! For a pine trecs as [ was passing. 1IN 8| prayer came to a sudden close—in-|yyjapces were fn line. The country (I once more partly vpened my cyes trice it cofled itself several times|g "3°\ “1}o very middle of & sen-|poia oo ] _ J o St el L iy about my neck till its head was di- ! here was rolling foothills or mark- | there stood a 3 n rectly in front of my face. Here it tence—as he fully realized his ?re' | edly undulating. So when the entire | the door of my tent, his face wearing L 3 E dicament. There was an instant of |, ound passed over one of these it|an expression of abject horru= as L« glared at me in the most vindietive manner, tightening its coils more and more ag it extended and withdrew its tongue. I let go my gun and in- stantly grabbed his snakeship just below the head with my right hand. After some pretty stiff lugging and pulling I succeeded in freeing my- sclf from 1ts coils and landing it in a compartment of my collecting kit, ominous silence, which my brothers | (0" R VU T on for a while, and I easily accounted for, but which y i BT Bt ceen it and the others took to be the silence that| jo yoxt hill bevond. As the last usually follows upon the concluslon | ;o went out of sight, I trotted batk of a prayer. However, this praver|,, (pa cliff to ascertain whether my was not destined to terminate in any | (Uopi "2 pout the grave was a cor- such placid mapner, for as the| .. no and, sure enough, it was. startled snake shot into its selected | "7 (N0 TUC BV O L rently of & place of hiding uncle came to hiS| ,nap or perhaps a subadult male, took in the situation. 1 spoke to him 4, deliberately, with hurdly & movemer of my lips, just ioud enough for to hear: “Keep cool, sergea two steady men here.” He was off in & second and ba 'k nearly as soon with a coupls cf the best men in the outfit. Go aid feten autobiography. Bob Wagner, who has feet like a flash—in fact, stopd on | Sl n full costume | “Gently throw back the flaps of the written more about the movles than TTHE lenses of the eye produce on | WWhere it °°|1"' Do /eRcane. tip-toe—as he uttered yell after vell li:a'al‘;gr;:iecf,\‘,x'slj!:':ll‘:i‘\;l ran Sabnar, | tent e atlisé pamson I ABS eouiiny, 1o s the retina an inverted Image of| ThiS case'ls quite unlque. 8o far &8 p.s wou1q have excited the Jealousy | ;on i in tne rock. It was twelve | This was done, and with £ cently finishad it. But when Charlie X objects looked at, and the question|! KNOW: that 1s, where such & small, |y, e 1imit of a bunch of Sioux War- Lo (nirteen fect above the ground, |liberation, but I could fecl that the glanced it over he decided that it would — is often asked, “Why do things ap- |°F relatively small, constricting snake | ;oo o¢ o scalp dance. and had been reached by a slanting [reptile realized that we were pla naver do for publication, and %o it re- g pear right-side up when their images|3ttacked a man. ,B"t, :"’, u‘hm" ;I;e ANl the ladies were instantly on| .. yna¢ led up to it from terra |ning something that tock him mained @ secret memoir. 2 are wrong-side up?” lend of the story, for I have the more | pheir feet, and their cries were bY 10 | gy, This 1 ran up on, after pick- | squarely into consideration. means weak samples of what ladies can glve vent to when aroused by such an unusual happening. The rest of the scene needs no descrip- tion. Surely none of those present ever forgot the experience to their lives' end, and at this writing T am “Now one of you men come are d back of my saddle and take a lorg time to do it. and when there face the door of the tent. Sergeant, #ici aside.” Never were orders obeyed more im plicitly. The other man was directed eting my harse nearby with a short- ened lariat. When I got on the end of the slant rock I noticed a foot was sticking out {n my direction, and other parts of the skeleton could plainly be seen. The drop in front of me was some- stayed out in those pine woods until long after dark, with the hope of get- ting an owl, or perhaps a good speci- men of a flying squirrel, or some other night-loving members of the faung of that part of the world. It pride. “Let me see. that means $11.50. That's not bad, s it?” And In a gelatine community in which the telephone book is the only book in the average library, Charlie has good reason for boasting. But he does not take his illiterary success seriously. * ¥ x % Tni:}u: has been more guff and non- sense written about Charles Spencer Chaplin than any actor in the world. Highbrow critics who nave never seen| “What about you and Shakespeare?” him, except In the act of throwing a I suggested. custard ple or sitting on a hot stove, | His only answer was another laugh. have hailed him the greatest histrionic | But when I asked him about his less genius of this age and generation. In | gentle critics he became interested. a recent appraisal of the great men of “T don’t care what the reformers say the world by ten of the alleged lead- | about me,” he replied with some v€he- ing critics of America, Chaplin received | mence. “They can call me a dengen- almost as many votes as Shakespeare. | erate, a dope flend—anything they wish Tn fact, he was ranked between | —if they'll only give a new idea for my Leonardo da Vincl and Ludwig von|next picture. That's tne only thing I'm Besthoven. On the other hand, certain |interested in. The trouble is, all the re- reformers and muckrakers, like the|formers can do is to cail names. Rev. Dr. John Roach Stratton, have| “From what they've said about Holly- characterized him as the lowest and | wood, one would imagine that it was most vulgar importation from the Lon- | filled with hop joints, wild women and don music halls. all that sort of thing. 1 wish it was. Both views amuse Charlie immensely. | It's the deadest. dullest hole in the itself. The instrument was adjusted to the eyes aty3 o'clock one afternoon and was not removed (except at night, when the eyes were bandaged) until noon the next«day. At first, to the person whose eyes wera thus treated, everything seemed topsy- turvy and lllusory, and the mind in- stinctively tried to Imagine objects to be in the position in which theyl ordinarily appear. Aftera time, how- ever, the feeling of the unreality of | what was seen passed away, and thel before T left Hollywood I kilew every | Derson experimented on even began spot on his clothes. to imagine everything that lay out- “CHARLIE WOULD HAVE IT LOWERED IN THE MORNING AND WALK ACROSS IT IN A DRESSING GOWN TO GET A BOTTLE OF MILK AND NEWSPAPER THAT HAD BEEN PLACED OUTSIDE. Charlie is not a socialist, even of the|in the same way as what he saw. parlor variety. As he said to be me|This goes to. show that habit and one afternoon: “I am not a radical | experience counteract the effect of except in matters relating to existing | the inversion of fmages in the eyes. forms of art. This talk that I am a so- cialist is too absurd for words. I'm an intense Individualist.” The Olympic Peninsula. * ok k ok ‘ROM the cities of Puget sound, in NVEENEVER /I, found himihe wam i2) the state o:Wuhln:tox:olhed‘eye always more interested in talking|ranges to the Olympic mountains, than anything else. He loves to talk. I|whose serrated proflle marks the ex- have heard him discuss the art of act-|treme northwestern corner of the ing for two hours, assert that there|United States, and their peaks and had not been any really good acting in | the great forests at their feet con- He laugas at the ridiculous adulation | world. T only stay out here because T|America for fifty years and then wind {stitute a practically unexplored re- of highbrow. critics quite as much as |can make my picture out of doors. If{up With as perfect a bit of pantomime|gion. 1t is said that Mount Olympus, he does at mud siinging of sensation- |1 made my pictures in a studio I could {as I have ever seen. I have heard him | the chief of the range, is 8,150 feet in seeking clerygmen. He knows he doggn't | make them just as easily and as cheaply | criticise Pavlowa and her dancing and |elevation, but there are many peaks rank with Shakespeare just as he knows [ in New York. then do a series of Russian acrobatic | varying from 7,000 to 8,000 feet. that life in Hollywood is so dull that he | “The only reason I haven't moved to |steps waich even a born Cossack might| The vegetation on the rugged hills couldn't be vicious, or even wicked, if | New York is because if I did I'd have | be proud of. And he always has a funny |and in the valleys is truly remark- he tried. no friends like these to visit,” he|slant on evervthing he discusses, even|able. Below the elevation of 5,000 His artistio a5 well as his private|went on. “There’s no life, no gayety, | marriage. With Solomon he agrees that | feet the gigantic trees of the great coputation is just as much exaggerated | here in Hollywood. When I want some | the first forty or fifty wives are the|northwestern forest are so thick and s his income fun I get on & train and go east for |hardest. the undergrowth is so tangled that & few days. It wouldn't surprise me| When Douglas Fairbanks showed us|by hard work one can travel & quar- if I moved east before long—although | the drawbridge of his property castie, [ter of a mile in an hour o; 't\o I know. Doug and Mary wouldn't like it nlhmnnflwd-mmmmuMo tralls. ! o thaomoney nade any. differsnoe, et But what is more to the point, |side his fleld of vision to be arranged || " o tne group was rather & large held prayers, each kneeling down by a chair in the dining-room. - We were used to it, my brothers and i, for it was almost & universal custom in those old days in New England. happened to be so placed that each had a good view of the rat trap, with my blacksnake in it. Uncle's prayers were long and fervent, and seemed to me to be particularly so. Pres- ently I appreciated the fact that my brothers were endeavoring to attract my attention and have me look over toward the rat trap, which I soon did. making his escape into the room, hav- ing flattened himself out so he could pass between the wires. was already out and stretched along the floor. their best to rostrain thelr excite ment and Iaughter, ‘would finish his prayer be was near bedtime when I joined the family circle at home sgain. My specimens were soon cared for, and the big blacksnake was placed In a wire rat trap, which was put next the wall under a side table In the dining room. the sole survivor of all those that were gathered there that evening. * ¥ % K ANY Mco to remain at the foot, just inside the tent. ‘Now both of you bend down very, very gradually and get hold of the four corners of the blanket. When I give a low signal, make a quick run and toss of it. Be careful not to hit the tent pole in the doorway.” When I was certain the blanket was being held as I directed I made a clicking sound with my tongue, and it was wonderful to see how hand somely his snakeship was landed out thing like teg or twelve feet, and the angle filled up with a dense growth of bullberry bushes. By balancing myself on the extreme edge of the slant rock upon which I gtood I could just about reach that foot and prob- ably work the skeleton toward me, should it hold together. If I lost my balance and fell, it would be only a ldrop of ten feet or more into the bull- berry bushes below, and, apart from a littde scratching, no harm would be years after this, having be- me an offier in the Medical Corps of our Army, I was attached as surgeon to the 5th United States Cavalry—the old 2d Dragoons—then serving in the fleld under its col- mother, my aunt—her sister—and [ onel, Gen. Wesley Merritt. We were her grown daughter, my two brothers | in Wyoming, with orders to sub- and an uncle, the late Rev. Richard!due the Indians roaming over that * x ¥ % OUR family was composed of my M. Abercromble, an Episcopal divine, part of the country the year follow- done. iri veral vards away who was paying us a brief visit. My |ing the Custer massacre. T was rid- * k ok ¥ :n th:hep;nn;reu:v;;aw",'.s e s ;l\(‘ r W with 4 of - s rom t, maternal grangmothe as also ing one afternoon at the head of the ‘\ Y horse was quietly grazing and Was demolished and sliced up in column with Col. Sanford C. Kellogg. the/day was clear, and intensely a dun-colored split-ear double-quick time. one. My horse, sultry. 1 had left my carbine and | y , Uncle wasmoted for belng very de- |from Texas, exhibiting the usual|revolvers in their holsters in the l“"‘ n‘,‘:.“‘““‘““ that was a mighty vout, and before retiring the family |stripes, was & wonderfully intelli-|saddle. So, balancing myself as best [ T8 0 A statement In which T most em- gent animal, full of yim and pos- Attty aGresd wilh Eurm sessed of great strength of limb and unusual powers of endurance. Rattlesnakes were very abundant in those times and in that particular part of the country, and from one to 2 half-dozen of them were killed by the men every day that passed. Dur- ing @ lull in our conversation my horse suddenly came to a standstill, threw back its ears, stiffened alil its muscles and straightened out its left foreleg as if it were made of iron. This unusual behavior was instantly followed by the loud and angry rattle of a rattler, coming from the direc- tion of the horse’s forefeet. On glancing down, I saw at once what had happened, for my horse had stepped on ome of these reptiles—a mighty big one—a few Inches back of its head, and was now holding it down with the foot. The body of the | neighborhood, I belleve gvery rattler snake was tightly colled about the|for miles around had squirmed into borae’s leg, With the rattle golng at|tha 3 | y 1 could, I reached out to my limit to grab that foot. It was just a bit too far, and in the effort I lost my bal- ance and was compelled to jump into the bushes below. I wore a big pair of spurs and heavy leather boots that reached almost to the hips. Well, the unexpected surely hap- pened, for I no sooner came in con- tact with the ground below than the, jar was followed by the worst rat- tling and hissing that ever saluted the ears of any man—prairie rattlers, all sizes, whoppers and pgymies! The getting out of that tangle of bullberry bushes was done in a hurry, 1 can tell you! And you should have seen the ugly fang marks on my boot legs—some of them up to the knees and above. But, bless those boots, they had saved my life. To get into the only shade In the Putting Out Fires. A glass ball, the glass being thin and easlly shattered, and about the size of an egg, filled With a standard flame-killing liquid, is now being put on the-market. Most fires can be extinguished wit little danger and little loss if propes means are available for prompt use Experiments have shown that'a fou of these new glass balls. or fire-outs as they are called, will quickly suuft out a bad biaze. In the past most fire extinguisMers have been rather high priced. This new extinguisher is a notable excep- tion. The three balls -which com-| prise a set are retailed for only Su‘ cents per set. A set of three bally comes in an ingenfous carton which On this occasion we three boys To my horror, my snake was More than half of his six feet three My brothers were doing I hoped uncle