Evening Star Newspaper, July 23, 1931, Page 5

DEATH OVERTAKES 75 LEADING TEASER 79-Year-0ld Stecplejack, Sea Diver and 'Chute Jump- er Succumbs in a Bed. Bpecial Dispatch to The Star. NEW YORK, July 23.—Can you magine a 79-year-old man continuing in the business of being a steeplejack? That fact becams public when Robert Merrill died in the Coney Isiand Hos- pital a few days ago. He had done Jofty stunts on land and sea for years and years, but never was seriously in- jured in his perilious undertakings. On> of the last jobs he did was to paint the coping and flagpoles on®the Hnotel St. Regis. Merrill, or Bob, as he preferred to be called. did not aitempt to conceal his age from his employer, but he did ask that it be kept in secret, because if it became generally known it might | ruin his trade. Bob did not hesitate to talk about himself once he got on his job. This is his story: “I have done things cn the sea. in the sky and in the deep. In other words, 1 have been a sailor, a para- chute jumper and a sea diver. And, of course, I'm a steeplejack. I was born on a ranch near Tucson, Ariz. “My father was a whaler, sailing out of New Bedford. In 1849 he loaded his ith provisions and went round the There the crew | od e gold rush crowd he ship Totted at her berth, “My father then bought an Arizona ranch and there I was born. When I was 12 I ran y to San Francisco, stowed away i hip bound for Pana- ma, made my way across_the isthmus and then stowed away for Boston. Back in my dad’s home port I joined a whaler “Then T took up deep-sea diving. One day I had got off a ship in San Fran- cisco. I was broke when I heard a man cay he wanted to get a man to put a rigging around a church spire for paint- ing. I took the job and tried steeple- jacking as a business. In the Summer I traveled with a circus, doing parachute Jumping. “Early in the century I landed from # ship that touched Havre and made my way to Paris. I nceded work. The Eiffel Tower attracted me, and I found | they were looking for some one to do a paint job near the top. I was quite an attraction to the curious.” (Copyright, 1931.) CAROL ACTS TO AID ISLAND SMUGGLERS Decrees Free Port Status for Ada Kaleh After Visit to River Colony. By Cable to The Star. VIENNA, Austria, July 23.—By royal | decres yesterdav King Carol of Ru-| mania made the tiny Danube island called Ada Kaleh a free port so the poverty-crushed inhabitants can legally resume their former occupation of smuggling. Ada Kaleh is an infinitesimal spot of rock with 350 inhabitants situated in the Danube exactly where the three countries of Rumania, Jugoslavia and Hungary meet. So barren and incon- spicuous was Ada Kaleh that it was forgotten by map makers after the treaty of San Steiano, and the popu- lation, with no legal nationality except Turkish, did a thriving smuggling busi- ness, since Ada Kalch for almost 50 | years had no frontiers. | Rumania, however, got Ada Kalch after the World War and smuggling stepped. King Carol visited Ada Kaleh during the Danube journey in which he met King Alexander of Jugoslavia, and was_so impressed by the desperate plight of the islanders that he has now Testored its free port status, according to the Weiner Journal. (Copyright, 1931.) : : \ OTTO STORY IS DENIED | BRUSSELS, Brlgium, July 23 (4. Gen. Kere s, attach to the staff of Princ Otto of Hungary at Steenock- rzeel Castle, today denied a story in the Paris newspaper Le Populaire that Hungarian Legitimists had anncunced their intention to p: im Prince Otto | King of Hungary as soon as the new | rian Parliament is convened. story is false from top to bot- the general said, adding that the young prince is concerncd only with continuing his studies at the University of Louva . | Science Death Is Process Similar to Explosion. Death is a process similar to an ex- | plosion, Dr. V. W. Lepeschkin reports in the Quarterly Review of Biology. The principal chemical compounds of living matter are so unstable, he says, as to be comparable to explosives, and they decompose in the same way under relatively slight mechanical stimull. | In experiments he has found that the | death of yeast cells is accompanied by | the production of heat. Even if an explosive is not set off, he reports, in common with all unstable substances it is subject to slow decom- position. This he compares to natural death from old age. Only at extremely low temperatures, where all chemical reactions would cease, he says, could this decomposition be prevented and life last for a very long time. If any vital principal, such as the soul, leaves the body at death, he says, it is because of the results of the “ex- plosion.” Its departure must be the result, rather than the cause, of death. T. R. H. | (Copsright, 1931.) | MRS. ROCKNE IN FILMS | Widow Leaves for Hollywood With Former Foot Ball Stars. CHICAGO, July 23 (#).—Mrs. Knute | Rockne Is going into the movies. ch left last night with a group of former gridiron stars for Hollywood, Calif., where she will take parl in a picture portraying foot ball days at | Notre Dame. | "Rockne was killed in an airplane | accident last Spring while en route to California in connection with °the picture. 751750 ' z CHICAGO NEW YORK NOT < PIT ‘HALF TRE FARE "MOST ANYWHERE® You will find Great, Eastern the saf- est, most scenic, most enjoyable way 10 go. The drivers are the best paid, the most careful and courteous. The buses are all brand new. LK 1319 °E' St N (Penn. & i4th) Tel. National 1721 or write Let the thermometer boil over the fop; you can keep cool RIGHT in your own home or office; stir up the air and forget the heat with one of our Electric Fans $6:50 up BARBER & ROSS, INC. 11th & G Sts. N.W. Oven Daily, 7:30 AM. to 5:30 P.M. Taturday, 7:30 AM. to 1 P.M. Stop! Look!! Listen!!! [} ur 3 Stores (and most all other leading stores) close All Day Satur- day! Co-operate—Shop before to- morrow, Friday, 6 P.M. 'M}w, July Clearance Sale! - All $16.50 Featherweight Suits AN SRR 1005 PENNA. AVE. SOUTHEAST COR All $20 and $22.50 3-Piece Linen and Nurotex Suits $16.75 All $25 Tropi- cal Worsteds $19.75 1744 PENNA. AVE. NER _I4THAEYE The widow of the famous foot ball' ( THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., THURSDAY, JULY 23, 1931 DO-X PLANS TRIP TO U. S. BY END OF NEXT WEEK By the Associated Press, | RIO DE JANEIRO, July 23.—The glant German seaplane DO-X will probably leave here at the end of next week for Miami, Fla) The trip is expected to take about | | | doing: Seventh Street eight or nine days. The DO-X Is still being overhauled, but it was ex- pected it would leave the drydock Sat- urday in as perfect condition as when it left Germany seven months ago. Plans call for taking 40 passengers on fhe trip to the United States, as well as special mail. The flight will be made over the regular route of the Pan-American Airways, along which refueling arrangements have been made. 4 Several test flights are planned here before the take-off, as well as a flight over Rio De Janeiro and a flight to Santos, Brazil, on Sunday. Affer reaching Miami stops will be made at Charleston, 8. C., and Nor- folk, Va., on the way to New York. ‘There were rumors here that the DO-X might be placed in service be- tween Havana and Miami within & few months. / Closed Saturdays in July and Apgust , The Gradual Replacement Plan - ’IF you would like to achieve an attractive - bed room without a large expenditure all at once, why not do like some others are Start with a bed. Supplant that FURN”URE! SMART . . BRACING . Such is the Airport Pool which opens next Saturday, at Washington-Hoover Airport. A Real Salt Water Pool at Washington’s Doorway Nothing is quite so invigorating as a salt water plunge. Just the thing for the tired business man who can now enjoy without leaving town. beach pleasures PLENTY OF PARKING SPACE FOR EVERYONE! Less than ten minutes from town by auto—drive over for a dip! Don’t Forget Opening Date old metal bed with a charming four-poster. A little later select a chest or dresser—a highboy or other piece. Soon you will have a delightful Colonial Room and never any great expense. Let us help you plan. Parking Service (Drive directly to our rear entrance and your car will be parked without charge) MAYER & CO. Betiween D and E Right at the Flying Field! - THE AVE AT SEVENTH SUPREME VALLUE 2 Far Under Their Value! TROPICAL Worsted Suits That Save You Money at *17.50 Coat and Trousers EN who buy these suits feel fortunate about them. You will, too. Here are genuine Tropi- cal Worsteds which we know are used in suits at far higher price. As for style and workmanship, we declare these suits to meet the regular standard * of Saks. Yes, they save you money—but they give you QUALITY! Plain Grays, Tans and Browns! and Tans! Patterned Grays Plain and Patterned Blues! Saks—Third Floor First Time—And At The Right Time! SALE OF “FOOT-JOY” $10—*12 SPORT SHOES 570 Pairs—Maker’s Entire Present Summer Stock A Sale of SHIRTS With Emphasis on the Quality $1.45 THIS price alone is n IR ghirts of this QUALITY are MIGHTY unusual at this price. Included are ex- traordinary Broadcloths, Madrases and Oxfords. A large number of the shirts have been added from our own regular higher-priced stocks. Collar-to-match, col- lar-attached and neckband styles; sizes 13% to 18 in the sale. 4 Saks—First Floor unusual—but 6.85 Foot-Joys Have Never Sold Under $10! AKS is the one store in the land to offer this sensational value—the maker’s entire present stock of this season’s handsome $10 and $12 Foot-Joy 2-Tone Sport Shoes—at a dramatic reduction! Every pair an actual $§10 or $12 value TODAY; the $6.85 price is un- heard of! HE 2-tone shoe is the fashion of the year— and in all America no shoes surpass Foote Joy in distinguished style, scientific comfort construction and custom workmanship. Plain and smartly perforated styles—in Black-and- White or Tan-and-White. ~ Also rubber-soled Tan-and-Elk Golf Oxfords. AA to D. Sizes 51011 "° Saks—First Floor . SUPREME-VALUE SALE OF TIES 19c I.‘R()M our own better stocksregular Saks quality! Light and medium weights— d-tailored—many silk-lined—many nt construction—every new color and theme. Save! Saks—First Floor in res pattern REDUCED! MEN’S SPORT TROUSERS R 5.85 SELECTEI) and reduced from our higher- priced lines of the present season. White Flannels or Striped Serges (stripes are brown, grey or green). Correctly cut for smart drape. Supreme value.