Evening Star Newspaper, April 25, 1937, Page 8

THE SUNDAY Try to Save Car Fire Hero From Jail Wife Promises Reconciliation and Company Will Give Duncan Job Back if He Can Be Freed in Larceny Case. larceny charge growing out of midnight prank—that's the story of Jesse W. Duncan, 28-year- old Capital Transit Co. motorman, as 1t came to light yesterday. Central figure in tiis drama in three ucts is Duncan, who 10 days ago stuck to his post on the Brightwood line street car when it caught fire and threw passengers into a panic. Inter- woven with his heroism are clements of comedy, tragedy and heart inter- est, involving a reconciliation with his wife and two children, from whom he . had been separated for more than a year. Now as the true-story drama that seems stranger than fiction comes to- ward a close, arises the hope that there may be a happy ending with Duncan Testored to his job, his family, and everybody living happily ever after. Act one opens in rural Maryland one dark night, March 6, to be exact, on a farm of Albert Thompson, near Gaithersburg. Duncan and a fellow HERO one day, sentenced the A next to 18 months on a petty a Capital Transit Co. employe, Abraham | Wine, are visiting a friend, who lives | on the farm and operates the dairy. | They are celebrating something or | oOther. Testimony brought forth in act | three indicated there was at least 8| pint of distilled spirits not in the wood pile. They bid their friend good night | and start homeward in Duncan'’s car. ‘The road to the main highway leads past the farm dairy, where, according to a complaint Thompson made to Montgomery County police, are stand- ing five 10-gallon cans of milk, wait- ing to be trucked to Washington. At Jeast they are there when Thompson goes to bed. When he gets up next morning, they are gone. Thirst for Milk Reported. According to the story pieced to- gether by police, Duncan and Wine were seized with a sudden thirst for milk as they passed the dairy, and put five cans of milk in the rear of Dun- can’s car. The five cans, one of them practically empty, were found next morning standing in a row in front of the Shoreham Hotel. While two men, even were their thirst for milk greater than any hitherto recorded, might not be able to drink 10 gallons of milk, police poinfed out, drinking from a 10-gallon can is no simple | children to reach the exits | have been hurt JESSE N. DUNCAN. spill. What remained was sour and therefore valueless. Wine and Duncan were found next day and charged with petty larceny. Act two opens on the street car which Duncan is operating April 15, as he has most of his past seven years, for the Capital Transit Co. As the car, going north on Georgia avenue, reaches Lamont street, there is an ex- plosion, a blinding flash, and the front end of the car is enveloped in smoke and flames. In an instant the crowded car is in pandemonium. Men fight women and ‘Those who cannot get to the doors smash windows in their panic and jump to the street. When hospital lists are checked it is learned that 26 persons in varying degrees. More may have been injured, and those matter and some would be likely to injured may have been in a more ' | & newspaper serious condition had not Duncan stuck to his post, despite the smoke snd flames, to bring his car to a stop, giving the trapped psassengers a chance to jump or éscape in com- parative safety. * Praised for Heroism. Passengers and company officials praised, his heroism and presence of mind, and his picture and the story are emblazoned on the front page of every Washington newspaper before nightfall. Reporters covering the story in Washington know nothing of his impending trial in Rockville, set for the next morning, nor do transit com- pany officials, and Duncan does not tell them. He goes to Garfield Hos- pital to have his burns treated. As the curtain rises on act 3, Judge Harold C. Smith is presiding over Police Court in Rockville. Such is the peculiar nature of fame that Judge Smith does not suspect that the de- fendant, less than 24 hours before, has been a hero. None of the police or court attendants know it, although all can recall later having read the story in the newspapers. By a strange quirk of fate, Duncan's counsel, Joseph B. Simpson, jr., Rockville attorney, has been working late the night before and early that morning on another case and has not seen any papers at all, except legal docu- ments, for t¥o days. And Duncan’s modesty is almost fatal. Asked cas- ually about his bandaged hand, he replies: “Oh, I just burned it a little,” Wine Called As Witness. Duncan, who had denied any knowledge whatsoever of the missing milk, does not take the stand, but Wine is called by State's Attorney James H. Pugh as a witness. His recollection of the activities of him- |self and Duncan on the night of March 6 is somewhat indefinite, but quite enough for the court. Judge Smith imposes an 18-month sentence on Duncan. Wine, as a State's wit- ness, goes free. Not until he leaves the court room with his client and his client's sister, Mrs. Sarah Williamson, 3718 Second street northeast, does Simpson learn of the events of the day before. Shown account of Duncan's heroism, according to reports, he hur- ries back into the court room and AMERICAS SMART BUYERS ARE INVESTIGATING THIS STUDEBAKER GHALLENGE THE 1937 DICTATOR IS -@ andfind outexactly why the big,impres- sive, beautifully styled Studebaker Dig- tatorsix is boldly challenging all 9 other sixes . .. even those of higher price! World’s first six to offer the dual ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPH STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, APRIL 25, | speaks to Judge Smith. After hearing the circumstances, orders are given to hold up Duncan's commitment indefinitely and he is released on $500 bond pending an appeal. It was later learned despite Dun- can’s silence on any subject touching his affairs, including his own heroism, that his wife, learning of his im- pending trial, had written, offering to aid him in any way possible, and that & reconciliation is imminent if Duncan can be extricated from his present predicament. When officials of the Capital Transit understood they offered to restore him to his job if he were free to take it, and, in view of his conduct literally “under fire” to overlook the infraction of the law of which he was found guilty. Meanwhile Simpson, it is under- stood, is studying means to turn the comedy-tragedy into a romance by having the sentence put aside so Dun- can can be restored to his job and family, and bring down the curtain with a happy ending. Alaska fisheries produced 400 million Co. learned of the circumstances, it is | cans of salmon in 1936. 1937T—PART ONE. MEETING ARRANGED Justice Hughes to Address Amer- ican Law Institute. An informal talk by Chief Justice Hughes will be the high light of the fifteenth annual meeting of the Amer- ican Law Institute, to be held at the Mayflower Hotel May 5, 6, 7 and 8. Mr Hughes will speak on the eve- ning of the 7th. Approximately 800 persons will at- tend. Principal speakers will be John Stewart Bryan, president of Willlam and Mary College, and W. Barton Leach, professor at Harvard Law School, Curtis Hodges, executive di- rector of the Greater National Cap- ital Committee of the Board of Trade, announced yesterday. —_— DR. KRASKIN TO SPEAK Dr. Lewis H. 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