Evening Star Newspaper, April 14, 1929, Page 107

Seconds Between Life and Death BY ANTHONY WAYNE. ERHAPS on one of your Cross- country flying trips by air express you may look across the checker- board ‘cultivation of Mother Earth to wonder just what you would do if your air liner should hesi- tate. It may be that you may read the notice which says: “Parachutes are found beneath the seats. Strap f.henvl‘ on when ordered to do 5o by the pilot. Not so fantastic as it sounds. While it seems to suggest the possi- bility of rapid descant to talk of a) parachute for an air liner, it is not any | cifferent in principle, say aviation ex- perts, than to mention the need of life- preservers for the Leviathan or other ocean greyhounds. Hence, jumping with one of these contrivances securely strapped on your back may possibly be advised in an emergency, the experience to be no more terrifying than leaping into the water! Accept expert opinion from James K. Clark, the United States Navy Air Service's star parachute jumper. Ask him—he knows! . N CLARK has made many hundreds of jumps. He said recently: *“I'd rather get out of an airplane in midair with a parachute lashed to me than Jeap fato the ocean from a ship with a life-preserver around my waist. “All things considered, I believe the parachute is probably the safer of the two devices. Folks have been taught for centuries to look on the life-preserver with assurance, but they still associate parachutes with the occasional country- fair performer who is killed becaus: something goes wrong.” And he added in a reminiscent way: “This may account for one of the amusing things having to do with jump- as we see it. It's the disappointed Jook on the faces of the observers when we come down safely! Do you know, only specialists of one sort or another take the trouble to.come out to see one of us tumble high in the air and then just glide uneventfully down to earth. What people expzct to see is the jumper's finish. I guess it isn't the working of the parachute that they are interested in, but in the possibility of its not working!” Such a possibility, these experts say, has been reduced to a minimum. It's 21l just as easy as falling off a log! So it sounds. Clark, who avers that the life-pre- server is all wet as compared to the parachute, recently startled the world by taking a motion picture while de- scending several thousand feet from a plane flying over Anacostia, near Washington. He challenges the ocean rider to match that! The film was made with an antomatic camera lash- ed to his body. The picture of the earth es it looks to a man dropping from the clouds may some day prove of value in giving pilots and passen- gers a visual demonstration of reach- ing the ground safely from a great height. * k kX CLARK is medium sized, stockily built, ruddy-faced, and has reduced parachute jumping to a science, which may be the reason that he speaks of it so slightingly. It is a fact, however, Two New NSECT life, in its war on the human race, has obtained twé® more allies for the campaign in the United States, and five States and the District of Co- lumbia are already the battlegrounds over which the engagements are being fought. | ‘The two new pests are Asiatic beetles, related to the Japanesc green beetle, that lusty foe of plant life which made its entry into the United States through a shipment of Japanese iris and in a few years became one of the major problems of the Department of Agri- culture because of its potential menace. The area in which the new beetles have opened their destructive attacks includes the vicinity of New Haven, Conn.; the southern tip of New York, including Long Island; all of New Jer- sey, Eastern Pennsylvania, one section of the District of Columbia and Arling- ton County, Va. ‘The two beetles are known as Anomala orientalis and Aserica castanea, which in plain English have been called the Asiatic beetle and the Asiatic garden beetle. Unlike their cousins, the Japanese green beetles, which seem willing to eat almost anything that grows in the vege- table kingdom, these two Asiatic beetles seem rather choosy and much prefer grass, particularly that of a well kept lawn. However, if hard put, they have no prejudice against nearby vegetables or carefully cultivated nursery stock, but their principal field of destruction is the Pests Arrive THE SUNDAY STAR. WASHINGTON, D. C, APRIL 14, 1929<PART 7. Star Parachute Jumper of the United States Navy Air Service, James K. Clark, Says That It Seems an Eternity of Time Between the Jump From the Airplane and the Opening of the Life-Saving Parasol—The Interesting Story of that he has gown so used to doing stunts in the air that send shivers along the spinal columns of seasoned avi- ators that he may have forgotten that the remainder of the population of America is still getting ready for the kindergarten.so far as air travel is concerned. According to Clark, leaping into space fram a swiftly moving plane is not at all a harrowing experience—that is, after a man has done it once. “Like the first hundred years of life, the first departure from a plane in the alr is the hardest,” says Clark. “it takes only a moment, but it is probably the longest moment one who lives it ever knows in all his life.” And speaking of beginning in this harrowing leaping, which most of us hope we will be spared, he explained that the first time a fiyer is generally pulled off—that is, he walks out on a wing holding to a stud and then lets the parachute go. The big bag, of course, inflates and promptly jerks him off into space. Slow-motion pictures of flyers trying it for the first time show that, no mat- ter how nervy he may be, the beginner holds to the stud with all his strength and to the very last. Such a procedure can easily be appreciated with the ! minimum of imagination. They spread rather slowly, fortunately, ana do not cover nearly as much terri- tory as the green beetle and it is be- lieved they will not bacome common throughout the United States for many years. Their potential threat to pasture land is so great that it has been found necessary to quarantine the sections in which they have been found, and a defi- undertaken. The best time to fight them, of course, is when they are in the | nite campaign of eradication will be | grub stage during the Fall, Winter and | Spring. Nature Limes Fields. FARMERS owning some 5,000 acres of meadow land in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio know, at least, that there is a Santa Claus. They live in regions where lime-carbonated water flows in little streams. One such farmer who owned a field in Erie County, N. Y., along Cattaraugus Creek, decided to utilize the creek for irrigation purposes and flooded his 20- acre field by means of dams. The water stayed on the fleld for seven days. The crop production showed an in- crease at once, and after a few sea- sons he noted that alfalfa and clover were springing up. Investigation revealed that the water was lime water and had corrected the acidity in. his soil. He now grows his alfalfa and clover, adding greatly to the profit, and he doesn’t have to pay a cent to lime his fields. lawn and the grass land. It seems that the pulloff is more un- pleasant than the jumpoff, though pos- sibly not so dangerous. According to Clerk: “The jerk you get when your body is suddenly dragged off the wing of a plane going at a speed of 100 | miles an hour or more is a bit severe, though it doesn’t hurt you. ‘In the jumping-off you merely do a few som- ersauits and then are brought up sud- denly, but not harshly, by the unfolding g “T have fallen a thousand feet or more before letting the parachute go. One g\an‘(eu 2,700 feet before releasing the ag. 5 * ok ok ok YOU might fall five or ten thousand feet with the parachute folded on your back, provided the start was high ;‘nough from the ground, without being urt. “My experience disproves the old be- | lief that a person falling from a great | height is suffocated or killed by the ' shock before landing. About the only | sensation you have when falling as fast as gravity will pull you—which at the start is about 30 feet a second and gets up to hundreds of feet a second before you have fallen a thousand feet—is of air rushing by you like a tornado. But it doesn't take your breath or irritate exposed parts of the body.” Some of which is assuring and the rest a bit nerve wracking. He continued his expert description of how it is done in the best of well regulated air circles: “Usually when just falling I tumble over and over. can be avotded by dropping off in a crouching position with your arms clasped about your knees. The tum- bling, however, is not unpleasant, nor is the jerk that breaks the fall when the parachute inflates and takes hold. Of course, the farther you fall before the parachute inflates and takes hold, the more severe is the jerk, but, even at that, it is something like falling into a huge feather bed.” And listen to further reassurance: “Unless conditions are unusual, you might read s book while coming down after the parachute is put to work. Really, the only thing to worry about is the landing. It is necessary to prevent entanglement in the branches of some trees or & bumpy pull along a cement highway. That might mean a broken bone or two.” Clark makes many of his jumps without getting so much as & souvenir scratch. There is a lot of difference between the present parachutes and the old bal- loon type that used to be found around countrty fairs. Clark explained that the early ones had to be attached with a cord to the top of the balloon bag. ‘This pulled open the parachute, the at- taching cord being then torn loose or cut. But airplanes move too rapidly for such a method; moreover, there is the danger that the cord might get tan- gled with- some‘mr! gl '*.he machine. * O parachute jumps were made from heavier-than-air craft until 1812 of which there are any record. Alr- the Parachute. THIS IS THE WAY A PARACHUTE JUMPER LOOKS IMMEDIATELY AFTER LEAVING HIS PLANE. ACCORDING TO CLARK, HE SHOULD WAIT ABOUT TWO SECONDS BEFORE HE PULLS THE RIP-CORD, THUS AVOIDING POSSIBILITY OF THE 'CHUTE BE- COMING ENTANGLED WITH THE PLANE. planing had been going on for several years up to that time, but no one ap- parently had thought of using the para- chute in conjunction with a flying ma- chine. It was a sufficlent risk of necks. it was argued, to fly in the frall and half-perfected ships without taking the added possibility of death by means of an_equally half-perfected parachute. But a daredevil named Bert Berry was finally prevailed upon to wear one and use it from a motored craft above Jefferson Barracks, Mo. Berry climbled onto the plane’s seat—an affair much like the seat of a present-day dining | chair, with a fragile footrest and slen- der safety belt—and went up. The ship soared higher and higher, and the farther Berry got from the ground the more its n contours ap- pealed to him—not that he was afraid, but it would make any one nervous to attempt something no other human had ever tried, especially since the venture was to take place several hundreds of feet above the earth. He could look past his feet and see down into blue nothing. It was a far !telg to the good Missouri soil. nally his pilot signaled above the roar of the engine that it was time to fo off. He carefully made a last exam- nation of the straps about his body, | looked down at the metal cone fasten- ed to the foot-rest which incased the ‘chute, unbuckled his safety belt—and + fell. There was & little slither as the ‘chute pulled free from the cone, a snap like the crack of a bull whip as it opened with a rush, and Berry found himself going down and very much alive. He landed without even cracking a bone. That night the man who made the first parachute drop from a plane was feted and lauded and great quantities of pre-prohibition brew were guzzled inshis honor. When the excitement subsequent to Berrry's accomplishment di down somewhat, A. 0 Stevens, another plonee of ‘the air, completed work on his “life-pack.” The demonstration, made by Bert Law, was successful and | n:d Stevens life-pack became widely | used. * ok kK IT'ud\Mngthahu.erpmar'.hz‘ ‘World War that experts gave special | attention to the development of a free- release type of parachute. Old-school jumpers gave much assistance to the Army Alr Service, which developed the first good free-acting type at McCook Fleld, Ohio, in 1919. This parachute is controlled by a miniature bag which emerges on the pulling of a rip-cord to which a ring is attached. The pilot parachute opens automatically, through the force of rub- | ber springs. It drags the main bag into position and causes it to spread out and inflate. It is asserted that one has never failed to work because of any inherent shortcoming, which naturally is encouraging. However, several pilots have been killed while in the act of getting out to jump with parachutes on, due to the packed parachute’s get- ting caught in some part of the plane or to the pilot's being struck by a broken wing. In a few instances the inflating bag has been fouled by the rudder or other part of the plane. One Army jumper who cleared his plane was killed be- cause he wasn’t high enough in the air when he jumped to permit the para- | chute’s expanding fully before he hit the earth. ‘The moral seems to be, don't jump unless it’s a long way down. According to Clark, parachutes are packed in twos so that if the first one fails a reserve may be brought into use. At least one army pilot has been saved by & reserve parachute after the main one failed to operate. It is estimated that, in this country, between 30 and 50 men, mostly airplane pilots, have been saved from death by jumping with parachutes. They have organized them- selves into’a club, known as the Cater- pillars. Other pllots could save themselves, according to Clark, if it were not for the tradition that no plane should be abandoned except as a last resort. It is similar to the sea captain’s desire to stay with his ship. In the majority of instances, those aboard have time to leap or drop out after something boding a crash happers. ‘When the plane is upside-down all fiyers have to do 1s unfasten the belt that | holds them in. Army and Navy flyers are required to carry parachutes ready for use. The BY MILT GROSS. Leedle Mees Moffet Set on top from a toffet Itting some coids whey It arrived a bleck spiter In a seeting poseetion besite her Wot he skerred her ulmost hout from de weets. Old Hindu Prowoib. §6(")HOO!—Momma “Yas, Moffy, dollink!” “Wherr de hack is mine podder-poff? Donn it, you couldn’t find a ting in dees blooming houze' “Why, Mofly dirr! “Mofly dirr, mine grenmodder!! It's feeftin rooms in de gosh-don houze wot itch one in doidy like a peeg pan, so dey got to boddering arond in mine room. Look, mine wenity!! I soppose mine oimine wrep Il finding in de bondle wat-wash yat!! Chrees Colombos heemsalf couldn't discover his tings in dees joint efter dey gatting troo h:r:“!!'2 gooc _;_nu-—hx‘m late!” “Late?? ‘o wherr do you gung, Mofty dollink?” - “Mo!” Why dun't you are awerr?? I'm gung hout I should seeting on mine toffet, of cuss “Batter be kerrful, dirrie, it’s redder | cheely deese ivvinings way opp dere on a toffet! Wait, I'll wrepping you opp some colds in conjonction witt whey you should heving a leetle snag!!” “Oh, I soppose—how lung it takes you to feexing it opp?? You'd lest abbot fife meenits in de Hautomat, kirro! S'long, mommsy. . . . Halp!! Ooy, I'll pess hout!! Yi!. ¥il Yi! Look!! Hey—mommsy—queeck—land me queeck you seelk stocl ! I got a ron in mine! Denks, hold potato! Dun't seeting for me opp! S'lonk!! “Moffy—you forgot de colds!” “Wal—for crying out lodd! 8o I deed. Goot pyel” “Brr—Pst!—say, goily, could you doong someting for & poor guy wot he was behind bars for feeftin yirrs?” “Oh! Und deed you was a conweect maybe, mine goot men?” Gross Exaggerations | in conjonction witt Parachute Jumper’s Thrill bag and ropes make up a square can- vas-covered punfi to which it at- tached a harness that goes on the body the fly Pilots sit on the packed parachuf the passenger may hold it on his lap. There is no law or legal requirement or regulation at present requiring commercial pilots or passen- gers to wear parachutes, but neverthe- less most commercial fiyers wear them. * ok ok ok CLARK and his fellow Caterpillar Club members hold that parachute= |may be as foolproof as life preservees | All that one has to do is to jerk a rnx that hangs on the left breast and let taa | apparatus do the rest. | . “And, believe me, no one is likely t» forget or be too scared to find thav |ring,” Chark added. “You will find | your hand reaching out for it natu- | rally.” | "The chief danger is in pulling it too quickly and risking a fouling of the bag with some part of the plane. This star jumper sayvs: “I usually wait about two seconds, or until I fall about 80 feet, before pulling the cord.” ‘The advice is offered for what it may be worth. Be sure to count just 80 feet, that's all. Then you are to pull the cord, gently or quickly, as you may elect. By throwing one's weight more on some than on other cords leading to the bag the parachute’s direction may be guided considerably. This enables the jumper to exercise some discretion in the matter of a landing place. “Don't swing your body in an effort to control the parachute,” Clark di- rects. “If you once get going like a pendulum, you can't stop and will hit | the ground with a wallop. That may tiean a broken leg. You should come | own straight, feet foremost, and land | with the body relaxed and inclining | backward so as to avold falling and | being dragged on your face.” It may be added, however, that in purchasing a bag the Army type is worth consideration. These are beau- [tflully made, and doubtless will be fur- nished to suit the complexion of the jumper—after he has jumped. They are interlined with strong cords and so seamed that no single rip is likely to extg{a(}!‘ vehry far. the Army and the Navy main- tain schools for parachute vjyumpers. That of the first is at Chanute Field, 1L, where in 1921 Lieut. Arthur O. Hamilton leaped from a plane when 24,000 feet above ground and came down safely. Sergt. Enoch Chambers leaped from a plane when flying near Kansas ‘C\ly at a height of 20,000 feet. And npt to forget the ladles: The woman's jumping record is held by Miss Phoebe Fairgrove, who made a descent of 15,200 feet at Curtiss Fleld in 1921. “No, dollink, I was a bloomin kenerry | botd!1” “Ha! Ha! I like you line tukk, kirro. Here, wrep yoursalf arond some | colds witt whey.” | ,‘Denks mees, I deedn't always was | like dees a tramp! I was wance high class witt"— | “So I'm werry sorry wot I deedn't | brutt alung for you a feenger bowl iulso—‘ Ta-ta—Wot? Nup, I jost | got wan neeckle wot I nidding heem | for a talaphun cull! Hollo—hoperator! | Spreeng HO-HO-HO-HO. Hollo, John- {nie!! Dees is Moffy! Hollo, baby! Oh, iyou do!! Too bed keed!! Try a {peeckled harring odder saurkraut Jjooze!! Kenned tomatiss is goot too. Pool yousalf togadder kirro!! We niid- ing you to play do uke tonight by Judgle in houze. Of cuss! It's by heem de family hout from tonn. Say—if | mine momma culls opp—you jost laft me seeting on de toffet! Gat me? S'lonk! See you by de jembo: Heh-heh. . . . Of cuss, it deedn't set leedle Mees Moffet on top from a toffet |et all. She rilly want by a whoopee- lpoddy wot it stood in de poliss station jde jodge wot he sad so: “HMmm— | wot's de chodge from dem hofficer?”— | “Hm—heenging witt using wile witt boisterous lengwidge from a insolting nature ulso trowing hout from de | weendow de battob (wot it was et de time hoccupite) sliting donn berristers, dencing witt de firemen wot dey came to put hout de fire wot dey sat by de coitans witt ronning over a pushcot paddler witt de patrol weggon hefter swiping it und drifting racklessly hefter wemping in und overpowdering de drifer. . . . Ulso"— “Why, Moffy dirr! Wot heppened? { You het is cockite! -You fazed scretch- ed, de drass is reeped. Wot could it | was2" | memmsy—I was setting on | mine toffet wot I was itting mine coids witt whey when hall from a sodden it |eame alung a beeg bleck spiter. . . . | Boo—hoo—hoo hoo—hoo!!” | “Hm—mine poor leedle Moffy!” | Clever Captives in Zoo Suggest Need of Kindness to Animals BY KATHLEEN REED COONTZ. I{4 ELLO, hello, is this the Zoo? ‘What particular celebration are you putting on out there for ‘Animal week'? Will the animals have a banquet, and will the tigers be allowed to play with the children?” To this query came the answer: “Ask the animals. Every week is ‘Be kind to animals week’ out here!” Headkeeper Blackburn was speaking, and “Blackie” knows his animals if any one does. For nearly 50 years “Blackie” hes handled wild animals, serving his novitiate in Barnum's circus and com- ing to Uncle Sam's Zoo when it ws founded in 1890. Here he has been since, trying to interpret wild animals to the public and the public to the animals. “Blackie” will tell you there aren't many “real mean” animals in the world, and no matter how much ‘“whoopee” the lions are making in their cages | below his office, he holds to that asser- tion. Furthermore, “Blackie” says there aren’t many “real dumb” animals, either. He speaks of animals intimate- ly—as individuals, with individual characteristics and varyl mental qualifications, and he always inter- esting examples to back up his state- ments. “This business of smartness in wild animals,” he says, “is hard to put your finger on, because folks are always try- ing to make man-smartness the stand- ard to measure animals by. We say the dog is smarter than any other animal, but we forget that the dog has been domesticated for centuries and has learned to catch on to the ways of man. In fact, it is about the only animal that seems to understand man by the expression in his eyes. But I have my doubts whether the dog would be smarter than other small animals | if he were put out in the world and | were dependent upon his own wits. | “Now, there are woives, They be- long to the canine family and are not generally supposed to 'have very high | intelligence, yet I have known smart wolves as well as stupid ones. | “Two of the smartest wolves I ever knew came to us from the West. | ‘Dawg mean’ was what they said about them, but at first glance I saw they hadn’t been handled right. They were they | suspicious of every one, althoug! had been in captivity for years. | “Every day I would go into their cages and sit & while with them, talking in a | jet voice. They got so they made | ewer and fewer flying leaps past me, | and soon began to edge near and touch my hand with their noses. | “One day something happened to onc of the bolts on the c: and out shot the wolves, headed for the woods around the Zoo. The keepers stood around and wondered what was to be and they felt it. ime afterward they would not come near me when I entered the cage. finally won them back again. SOKO, WHO, ACCORDING TO DR. MANN, PLAYS THE STAR PART IN THE ZOO INTELLIGENCE TEST. ness. Why can’t we just let him be -smart. That's plenty anyhow. He's a mighty smart but he would make a glourumm.h “Blackie” when an the third largest of ani in the United States, Uncle Sam finds his Zoo eighth in point of accommo- dations. So an a for the Slogan Which Gives Force to Celebration of Special Week Reminds Capital of Remarkable Intelligence Tests Passed by Uncle Sam’s National Collection—How Wild Are Jungle Beasts? clear and distinctly there fell upon his ears the insistent question, “How about the appropriation; how about the ap- propriation?” Gen. Lord looked around, surprised |and mystified. And then, & little irri- tated at the timeliness of the remark, sald: “Who taught that bird to say that? I call it impertinent!” ‘This tme the mynah bird shot back | a bit of uncoached repartee. | “So's your old man!” he squawked, | and the general laughed. | _The appropriation was later made for | the new bird house which. today graces ! | the Zoo. “l.‘verymbody thinks th:é bird is smart | because things they can under- iatl[l;lrd." };hul:d:éu“fihckle." | . Mann s a very interestl |story of what he terms “the mnst‘:s | stroke of animal intelligence” in his | | experience. | “Soko,” the big chinpanzee, had been suffering with an aching tooth. It Vering ‘on the pact of the. Reeper the on e o e ) 1 tooth was extracted. e | A few days afterward, when the' keeper by his cage, Soko knocked on the to attract his attention and * K ok ok “Humane Sunday,” and give a little thought cavalcade of dumb beas's the animal knigdom with To the beaver he attributes more intelligence, mechanical skill and rea- soning power than to any other wild animal, and he calls the Pack Rat the “Intellectual phenomenon” of the great group of gnawing animals. Of all bears, the grizzly is believed to be the wisest, and the Indian elephant surpasses all other members of his family in braininess. As every one knows the great apes, particularly the chimpanzees and orang-utans are the most interesting subjects for psychologic study of all the wild species, because intellectu- VER RATES HIGH IN MECHANICAL SKILL D REASONING. POW : ally and temperamentally, as well as anatomically, these animals stand very near to man himself. The famous chimpanzee, Peter, who held the center of a su&e in 1910, was undoubtedly one of the finest exponents of just what can be done with the chimpanzee when he is rightly trained. While “Kind to Animal week” and “Humane Sunday” are of comparative recent origin, having been celebrated only about six or seven years, the Na- tional Humane Soclety is more than half a century old. The first humane society in the United States was that in New York city in 1866 founded by Henry Bergh. The organization in the District was chartered by a special act of Congress in 1870 under the name, “Prevention of Cruelty to Animals,” by which these societies were then known. For 20 years John P. Heap, the present secretary, has been in charge.