Evening Star Newspaper, August 16, 1925, Page 74

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, 'AUGUST 16, 1925—PART 5. Human Toboggan Is Desperate Expedient to Save Girl on Mountain Battle With Hurricane Among Thrilling Features of a Series of Brushes With Death in the Heights of the Pacific Northwest. ind romance of moun tain climbing so vividly called to public attention by this Summer's expedition to Mount Logan is graph srth here by C. E. Rusk, faced death many times in ins of the great Pa Northwest Over steep, ice-coated surfaces where a misstep means almost in atant destruction and where a blast of wind may cost a man his footing and send him over a precipice Mr Rusk has made his way, gathering the experiences and impressions which he recounts in this and two subsequent articl, The peril BY (. E. RUSK OUNT HOOD had been illumi nated, and I wanted to illumi. v Mount Adams, in the State of Washington. [ had \ fervent desire to burn red ipon that lofty summit, so unique display could be hout the surrounding cou ¥ July I got t small par osed A. Rusk ilbreath fson 1 residents of fire seen try gether u father, J John Keel, Thompson an the vicinity untain, which enough to be rank myself this & has D the pr Our noble L contine he tain entire party to h helping to luminating material, some and extra clothi he rest would return to camp in the afternoon vhile my father and 1 would remain Al night on the summit, setting off he fire at 9 o'clock. How much of this plan was carried out I shall now proceed to tell. An hour's time served to bring us up t gh the rapidly dwindling tree usters, the velvety flower-strewn 1wns and the boulder-capped ridges of he parklands and put with the ager aines. The was still hard topped the moraine by the aid )f a steeply inclined snowtleld and pro ceded across the gentle of a all glacter toward the great lava ge which forms the lower stairway r the southern ascent of the moun tain As crossed the 1sts of wind cut ot still clear and armed. We 1d a Stiff sc the to face great us face mo; snow slope we glacier sharp But the were not reached the ridge ramble brought us on to st. Here the wind as- little more fiercely » in its ey teeth ds, and on we went sky was we d sharper i were afraid Now began a long, monoto b the great lava bickbone. seemed be steadily increasing in strength. The rough, unworn boulders nd the » lava points were trying and they sapped our :sionally we gained some snowtield that between minor no cle un ous grind The wind patience, sion But there | it for the most part our way . ie rocks. Before we were way to the saddie the wind had gained such violence that in climbing over one of the lava blocks a particu larly strong gust caught me and ipped me o The two Thompsons followed at short intervals by Keel and Gilbreath, leaving my father and e in the rear. These men were good backwoodsmen, but they had never limbed high mountains and they had not learned that to climb a big peak quickly one must do it slowly. I have forged ahead, | | ofr | bones. | hold up our | th that | of | | frienaly to the first summit. We could not sce to the west bevond this ridge. We had chosen the snow route. Presently detached clouds began to sweep past us with frightful rapidity, close that we could almost reach and touch them And now were in for a storm of out we saw in truth that we a tremendous battle with no mean magnitude. As the wind increased and the clouds rushed by in ever-increasing numbers we found it harder and harder to fight the cold that plerced to our very As we climbed we could not hends against the fierce and we had to keep our eyes ipon_the steep slope just before us. e booming of the gale upon the ocky ramparts was now incessant fearful speed of the flying clouds the frightful velocity of the blasts, wind. Fortunately for us, the recent hot weather had left the snow in so soft a condition that we had no trouble in keeping our footing on the steep face of the mountain, although the hurri cane was now trying to tear us from our trac In spite of our slow progi my tather and 1 soon overtouk two of the part both chilled to the marrow and utterly discouraged. We cheered them as best we could, but there was little one could offer by way of encourage ment in the that assailed us. Presently we came upon two more of the party, huddled in the lee of the boulders, trying to get some relief from the onslaughts of the gale. We, too, dived beneath the rocks, and there we all crouched for a few minute: stening to the roar of the wind as it swept across the rocky barrier The rock-huddling process now be. came a habit. It is astonishing how a boulder can be at times. We would climb for a short distance, braced against the pressure from the west Yet with our heavy coats and encumbering packs and with all our strenuous exertions we could scarcely keep from freezing We deserted th snow and took to the rock stairwa: Whenever we could bear the piercing needles of the wind no longer would crawl beneath the protecting lava blocks for another brief respite. And then we would try it again Here two of the party gave up. So we took a part of their packs and watched them disappear down the mountainside in the swirling clouds. x % % # QUON after Gilbreath and Keel had 9 left us the clouds closed around the mountain %o thickly that we could se nothing that was not close at hand Had I not been somewhat familia with the route, because of my previous ascent, it would have been impossible for us to proceed at all. We were now claumbering up and around tk great boulders, and our exertions brought us almost to the limit of our endurance. Yet we could not keep war If it had not been for the brief periods of rest and relief from the driving cold which we so frequently tock behind | the rocks, we should have been forced {ward and the clouds | lowed them. | rocious g: Iways refused to be hurried on a long | scent, and generally bel ar ones at the beginning, 1 have had ing one of the | could satisfaction of being one of the | st on top. Y the Thompsons time T reached the saddle the were far in tween me. nity ‘There is no such thing as a uniform snow line on any great peak. too many conditions to vary v on different mountains. it, not but on fferent sides of the same mountains. | ing and ducking beneath the rocks. Yet as a general proposition it may be 1 that Mount Adams is well mantled with snow and ice for more than feet from its summit down As we began the ascent of the great snow slope the wind swept us with dded fury. But as yet there were only a_few scattered clouds swirling through the My father and I were now close together. Gilbreath and Keel had slowed down percepti. bly, but the Thompsons still main- tained their long lead. Our packs not v he vet the few pounds they weighed added greatly to the difficulty of climbing in the thin wir. sky too, was striking us at and its pressure increased 1 and required much rength for resistance that otherwise might have been used to overcome Ititud We each had overcoats, which were put on when we found to our surprise that we could not keep warm even while cligib The wind was cold and it cut 11ké blades of ice. Our course was roughly parallel to one of the long boulder ridges that led up the great slope from . saddle “THE WIND CAUGHT US WITH INDESCRIBABLE FURY: WE HAD TO BEACE OURSELVES DESPERATELY TO KEEP FROM BEING HURLED OVER THE GREAT EASTERN PRECIPICE SWEPT BODILY FROM THE MOUNTAIN | | the lead. | They were well advanced on the great | on the mountain; that i snow slope leading to the first summit. | tell how high we were. The others were scattered along be. | velocity to instant retreat It did not take much of thisto more v the Thompsons. Gone was r early desire for a swift dash to the summit M Ks. tather and I took part of their They turned their faces down instantly swal Notwithstanding the fe- ale and the wild turmoll of rushing clouds, no fresh snow had as vet fallen, and our newly made tracks be easily followed down the mountainside. There was little danger in going back; the danger was in go- ing on. My father and I now faced the wild fury of the storm alone. Owing to the density of the clouds, there was no way of correctly judging our position we could not Although the had increased of the wind . my father being just ahead of | immeasurably since we left the saddle, The wind had atiained the dig-|we judged that the hurricane had be | come a general one and that the lower levels were receiving their propor There | tional share. With our augmented packs, we con- tinued the process of alternate climb. T {have no means of knowing how long | we kept on. If such a thing was pos. sible, the wind was increasing in fe- rocity all the time. The clouds were driving across the face of the mountain so thickly that we could not now see a half dozen steps in any direction. We had to cep close together to avoid losing one another. Only by the contour of the peak could we tell the direction in which we were going. uch a situa- tion could not last long. * o x * OSSIBLY an hour after the Thomp sons left us we suddenly came off of the boulder ridge on to a little patch of level gravel. I did not recognize the place. It had doubtless been cov- ered with snow on my first ascent Not until later was I to learn that we ached the first summit. started across the gravel. The caught us with indescribable fury. We were grasped in the arms of the tempest and forcibly shoved sev- eral steps sideways before we could stop ourselves. A few steps more and we should have been hurled over the wind face of the elemental fury | we | e | in They decided to go back. | | | | {areat eastern precipice. We | brace ourselves desperately from being swept bodily | mountain. | 'No words can describe the terrible | I majesty of that storm The terrific impact of the gale against the rocky buttresses of the mountain produced a booming roar continuous in its in- | tensity had to to keep from the in & mantle of fresh snow, and this| extended down the slopes far below our camp. Ice stood in the cooking utensils, and the thermometer, hang- ing within a few feet of the fire, reg- istered the freezing point. It must have been well below zero on the summit We packed our effects and hurried down through the newly fallen snow The hurricane struck the western |to more hospitable regions face of the peak with awful force and| When we got back to civilization we was flung up over the summit ridge | found that the gale which had swept | with ever-increasing velocity. In the eastern Oregon and Washington on | | great void beneath the eastern preci- | that memorable Fourth of July was | pices no doubt the wind was whirling | the worst that had been known in mighty eddies, while|many years. Imagination alone can every craig was vibrating like the [picture its violence on the great moun- strings of a giant harp. | tain The clouds swirled around and over! Some time later the Mazamas, Ore and past us, driving their icy needles gre untain-climbing ¢lub, through our thick clothing and chill- | undertook to climb Mount Adams [ ing t blood in our veins. There| Our party included four loggers and was nothing we could see but clouds. | H. S. oddard, E. H. Loomis, W. P. and we sensed the desperate turmofi | Flanary, W. J. White, T. J. Devine, C. | about us only by the tear of the wind [ M. Ryman, O. B. Frisbie, Mr. and Mrs. against our bodies and its boom upon | 0. O. Carrell, J. K. Buchanan, Lydia | the cliffs |Crowe, Effie Byrkett, R. A. Byrkett, Holding the position we had gained | Fred Morer, Frank Egan, Mrs. Rachel | {by supreme effort and standing close | N. Rusk, . E. Rusk and Miss Blank. together, we hurriedly discussed the Miss Blank had on walked up situation To persist was suicide. | Pike's Peak, and as Pike's Peak is There was no shelter either on the about 2,000 feet higher than Mount first or the main summit. 1f a man|Adams, during the first part of our were to survive the night, he must climb she was somewhat inclined to| do it in the teeth of the hurricane |speak sneeringly of our Washington with no protection mountain. I told her she might find Even if one could avoid being actu- before the day was over that climbing | ally blown from the mountain, he|Mount Adams and walking up Pike's |must inevitably perish from the in-|Peak were two different propositions. tense cold that was sure to prevail I hardly expected at the time, how. during the long hours of darkness. It {ever, that my position would be 8o dra- would take the storm hours to sub-{matically vindicated, and Miss Blank side after it once began to abate.|refused to be convinced. And, if anything, it was still on the evertheless, Miss Blank appeared increase. A fire could never be started { to make the climb and to arrive at the | in such a gale, and even if it could our | summit in much beter shape than | illumination could not be seen through | some of the men in the party. |that tumultuous tush of -clouds. We were about ready to begin the | It we had had ourselves alone to|descent when Miss Blank suddenly | think of. we might have been justified | crumpled down and lay unconscious in in taking such risks as we were will- |the snow. Dr. Goddard, skiliful phy- | ing to assume. But there were others | sician though he was, trled in vain to to consider. There was but one thing |revive the stricken woman. to do. We must go back. The situation was serious. The | Turning cautiously, lest the wind |afternoon was well advanced and it | catch us again and throw us over the | Was growing colder as the day waned. | eastern brink, we worked slowly back | It imperative that we get Miss to the point of boulders. We were still | Blank down the mountain before dark. reluctant to return, but we knew it |ness set in, for to leave her on those must be done. Carefully we won our | frigid heights throughout the night | way downward, but we found no re.|would mean her chilling to death. But llef from the storm. We had the ad-|We were a mile in height above the vantage now, however, of not having | Néarest timber, and this meant that to stop for breath and there was no|We must traverse more than four miles longer the exhaustion due to climbing | of broken lava and compact snowfields efforts. When we reached the saddle | before we could hope for enough fuel the gale was still o fierce that the |to kindle even the tiniest fire. | boom of the wind around the lava cliffs| But we lost no time in inactivity. was like the roar of a mighty water-|AS soon as it was found that Miss tall Blank could not be restored to con- We were hours in working our way down the great lava backbone and in getting to camp. We found the other men there with a roaring fire in the shelter of a timbered ridge. Looking back to the mountain, there was noth- | feet, the slope is very steep, and for- ing to be seen but the battling clouds. | tunately it was now well covered with At camp the wind was mercilessly [ SOft snow. whipping the treetops | Late in the evening the clouds | cleared for a time and the upper part | of the peak stood clear and cold in the | | r bodily down the gradual snow slope to the record box. From here to the vast snowfields of the first sum mit, a vertical distance of about 500 R HEN we reached the record box Mr. Loomis generously proposed that we use him as a human toboggan. This expedient had been used once be- fore on Mount Hood, and it has been resorted to elsewhere. The human to- boggan is brought into requisition onl when the need is very great, and it i available only under peculiarly desper- ate conditions. One or two of the other men, now that they understood the plan, volun- teered to act as the toboggan, but since Mr. Loomis had been first to offer himself, to him was accorded the honor of the sacrifice. He lay down on his back in the snow. We placed the form of the un- conscious woman upon him _and strapped their ankles together. With his arms he held her firmly to him, so there was no danger of her injury 1through contact with the frozen snow. We dragged them swiftly down the steep slope. But when we reached the level | stretch at the foot of the summit dome our troubles had but begun. There was now nearly half a mile to the point of the first summit over which we could not drag our toboggan. Tak- ing two gunnysacks, we stretched them on alpenstocks and thus made a rude litter. In this we carried Miss Blank. It was an extremely difficult task, for the snow was soft and the two-mile altitude made any extra ex- ertion painful. But at last we got our burden to the point of the first sum- mit, and were confronted by a tre- mendous slope leading down to the saddle, 2,500 feet beneath. | To get this far had been a relatively easy part of our problem. The job before us was herculean. It was necessary now to make systematic plans for what we had to do. Miss Blank was still unconscious. Dr. Goddard’'s repeated efforts at re- suscitation had been without avail. The four loggers, although by reason of their outdoor labors probably in the best physical condition of any of the men in the party, made no offer to help. They went their way down the mountain and we saw them no more. The other men were willing to do all they could. Some of them, of course, were needed to help the other | | women get down. Others were scarce- ly able tg look after themselves. The stronger ones stood stanchly by to do |all that could be done. Standing at the upper point of the {great snow slope which leads down {trom the 11,500 to the 9,000 foot level, | we faced the situation with many mis. |givings. The human toboggan was jour only recourse, vet there was dan- ger in the plan. If the two prostrate | forms should once get beyond our con- trol in‘the swift descent, tragedy would be inevitable. The way was flanked on either side by jagged rocks. In many places patches of hard ice lay beneath the soft upper layer of snow. frosty air. But by the time darkness fell, low, dense clouds were again rush ing up the western face and over the summit ridge with the speed of an ex- press train. In the morning the wind had died, but the mountain stood out white “DOWN AND DOWN WE PLUNGED-IT WAS A RACE AGAINST NIGHT. WITH A HUMAN LIFE AS THE PRIZ ! placed the unconscious woman | him, and he clasped around her to hold her f in pl P I then strapped their ankles tight together and tied a short rope above their feet. A strap was fas tened about each of Loomis’ arms at the shoulder and a man detalled come slightly behind on either side to |gan in the proper cc Another man was sent a few yards ahead to scout for icy places beneath the snow We were then ready. | * K k¥ 'AKING hold of the rope, I started down the great slope, dragging man and woman after me. The day | had been a reasonably warm one for | that aititude, and the snow was qu [ soft on top, although, as I have said | before, there were occasional patch | of ice just beneath the surface. Had the snow been hard on top what we | did would have been impossible We were soon whizzing down | mountainside. The rocks on hand flew by, and a glance now and then backward at the point of the | first summit showed it shooting highe and higher into the air. Had not ou situation been so serious, it wou have been. exhilarating, this f dash down the long slope of a g Western snow peak, but it was a r: agatnst night, with a human life as the prize I was under much apprehensior to how it might be faring with poor Loomis, but we were making speed and speed just then was very esser tial, s0 we dared not stop to find ou We had soon found that there sufficient men to control the strange a dangerous speed When we found this out we no longer put a check upon | the rate at which we were capable o |going. We exerted ourselves to th | limit of our capacity Down and down we plunged. The | | inhospitable summit rose farther and if&r‘lhl'r behind, the timbered foothills and safety drew nearer and nearer. [ We rushed in a few minutes over | distance that had terminable hours of toil on the ascent. | In the very nature of things, vigorous measures must soon bring re {sults. "~ The work was exciting but | short. How long it took us I do not | | know. Our ascent was measured in | | hours: the descent was measured in | minutes, | Presently. to our unspeakable relief. | the saddle appeared close at h: s But the chill of night was coming on apace, and we must get down. The others had been started on the descent, but Goddard. White, Devine, | This was made apparent by the lesse Buchanan and possibly one or two|ing of the slope and a consequer whom I do not now recall remained to | lessening of our speed. Ere long help Loomis and me. Loomis once|stead of having to check the toboggar more lay down in the snow, again we | I began to have to pull. Then came a of streams L perc | of only o n 11 000 upon | point at which 500 feet 1ft feet Mi imstrapped her f toling t gettir {act as a sort of guy to keep the tobog- | Loomis rose Mis 1ppC ame rklands things about mountaineering that may dy strength | Blank either | ndoned which clay most poured | practice were | pectors toboggan and to keep it from gaining |type that has panne worth d fred mately tered and a valu gro¥nd from us in- | been placed on the HERE into face sa to obogg g her srted by be mile Y be for h tr: > through = on her P " . stop. air we L ss B rom soon feet. When a gash Blank was soon able to wal man on either |But the long, rough lava ridge still i sed, and the after timby et it is one of the t anc in 4 me in utter collaps a few minutes. to gain, the lowe T Yet it was Nevertheless daylight party stumble £ Queer Lead Mine. UNIQU ‘mine” club, nics steady for and llars of t the ground, “‘pay diately with It 30 t within E is cornfield lon range by a Western t ording On rec he me: the ns c and profit. being worke pshoot er the pigeons are hail vears of 1at Pac first imate of $5,000 accor mining Plenty of Room. in th 0 of t Lal would till quite a bit Parliament’s Medical Committee Backs Plan to Cure White Plague BY GASTON GAUTIER. F all known methods of combating tuberculosis, the Spahlinger method seems, at the present moment, the most hope- ful and promising.” This is the report made by the medical committee of the House of Commons, from a trip to Switzerland, where it made an officlal investigation for the nglish Parllament of Dr. Henry Spahlinger’s serum treatment for the cure of the “white plague.” The members are so enthusiastic about the practicability of the thing that they have recommended ralsing $500,- 000 to aid this Swiss scientist, whose system of treatment has a record ap- parently of curing 80 per cent of all cases to which it is applied Dr. Spahlinger is in financial aim- culties. He has steadfastly refused to reveal the formula of his serum to any commercial companies—though recent- Iy he was offered $2,600,000—because he fears that the process would be ex- ploited, made unavailable to the poo: and impaired by business haste. So he keeps his secret, though all his own money and the fortune of his familly have been sunk in it,and his house is about to be sold over his head for debt. Perhaps the money may be raised in time to save the little laboratory in Geneva where this seemingly revolu tionary work is being carried on. The appreciate the importance of this discovery, if it be as real as it appears, we have only to reflect that in the United States alone on an [ DR. HENRY SPAHLINGER, THE SWISS SCIENTIST, WHOSE WIDELY DISCUSSED ANTIL- TOXIN EXPERIMENTS HAVE COST HIM 20 YEARS OF HIS LIFE AND THE ENTIRE FAM- ILY FORTUNE. average of 266 persons dle of tubercu- losis every day. There are really more than that, for we have only the registration area from which to com- pute, and there is no way of telling how many additional deaths take place outside the registration area, nor how many are never registered. The discoverer of the new treatment is now about 45 years old. He has studied medicine, but had given it up for the law, because of his bhorror of vivisection experiments. About 16 years ago he visited a friend who was dying of consumption in a hospital, and was so profoundly impressed by the sight of the other consumptives in the ward, all of them doomed, that he thereupon set to work to discover the poison of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is caused by a germ or bacillus which gives out a violent poi- son or toxin. No man had bee: able to isolate the poison. The toxins of many other diseases—diphtheria and lockjaw, for instance—had been found, isolated, cultivated in glass tubes; but the germ of tuberculosis, cultivated outside the body, made no toxin. In the bodv it was deadl: outside the body quite harmless. * % % ¥ 'HIS last fact had a new meaning for Spahlinger; he reasoned that the tuberculosis germs gave out thelr toxins n the body for some definite which has just returned | SPAHLINGER'S INOCULATED AND SERUM-PRODUCING CATTLE, SOME OF WHICH HAVE BEEN SOLD TO MEET THE CLAIMS OF l.REl)ll:l‘R:\ reason that did ot exist outside the | body. They are defending themselves |an even more deadly poison. By the against conditions tnat do st exist |end of about a yvear the germs are so elsewhere. In the body the blood is|savage that they do not need even known to contain certain corpuscles |the guinea pig blood to make them | whose duty it is to attack and try to |give out their toxins, but are ready | destroy all invading germs. Outside|to do it on the slightest provocation the body no such hostile ock troops | They have been ained,” as it were. exist, so the tuberculosis zerms They are placed in test tubes, whe! no need to use their ammunition;|a constant irritation kept up, b whereas, in the body, these germ: changes of light, temperature, etc., al having to fight for their very lives, behave as so many other creatures do when attacked, and cast forth a very powerful poison. Spahlinger felt that if he could make the tuberculosis germs emit their toxins elsewhere than in the human body he might be able to isolate these toxins and perhaps find a way to coun- teract them. by practice also the germs give out the virulence of their polsonous secre. tions. At the end of a second the toxin in the tubes has reached the | virulence that Spahlinger desires. A third year is devoted to cultivat ing the microbes on beef tea, ur sufficient quantity of the ultra-virs toxin is available. Spahlinger h covered that there are different va- | Knowing that other creatures than |rieties of toxin, each of them respon- | man were subject to tuberculosis, he|sible for a certain symptom of tuber-| selected guinea pigs upon which to|culosis. At the end of the third vear | experiment. He determined to worry |he isolates each of these varieties | the tuberculosis bacilli until they pro-|and injects them into the blood of duced a virulent toxin in the guinea |hors pigs. For several years he worked| Jirst the dose injected is minute before he perfected his method. This|gradually it is increased, and as it in- | is quite complex and takes sever: the rse’s body begins sec years, but is, in lay language, about |ing ever lurger and lire as follows: of antidotes. Guinea pigs are inoculated with the| The horses do sputum of a consumptive person; the | tinuc their usual germs of tuberculosis find a suitable|of 10 or 12 months the horse’s blood | medium in which to live; they are|is full of antidotes, far more than | attacked by the guinea pig blood and |enough to neutralize the toxins, how begin to defend themsclves by giving | ever big the dose, and this may be out their toxins. The blood by prac- | large as a pint toward the end tice becomes ever more efficient, and | Then the horses are bled & T qua but con the end | not suffer, work. At Sue of which tends to make them increase | inger fre seer In in th u giv H. a uu ple. the calle the me e lay rge N atin press of governments Spahlinger tr me stlen attitude London ¢ of th who Spah cover tinues, il al press, t, or at A wrot er he ne vever. least non- wel 1 illustrated ndent of Medical 1e press campa linger's ed e health has dec stat vest ties the insur fund by that 1. some (friend] governn ance s in or Spahlin fwr-nn ers horses, | has 1 1sed the T Im hent ct) der, ger The to THE SPAHLINGER “INSTITUTE,” ONCE THE FAMILY MANOR HOUSE AT CAROUG 1t has ¢ consumption cc vet, t ed to ¢ \atter pressed 1 the approved ieties ogT under the desire to secure im he atmen serum the ministry sanction of this NEAR GENEVA. I'rom regain almost ful Miss = succeeden 1n Mr. from the snow there was blood where his head had lain, for bit of ice had cut their