The evening world. Newspaper, June 2, 1922, Page 31

Mrs. Elizabeth Merklen, a Freeport Housewife, Just ‘‘Between Times’’ Saves People From Drowning; She Has Rescued Eight a eee By Joseph S. Jordan. @epyright, 1922 (New York Evening World) ' by Presa Publishing Co, RS. ELIZABETH MERKLEN, M 31 years old, of No, 275 South Main Street, Freeport, was ushered Into the public prints ® fow days ago when she dived into the Freeport River and sayed the Mfe of Harry Green, 8, who fell out of a boat and was going down for the third time When the lady rescued and swam to the shore with him. It was a thrilling rescue and if a movie man had only been on the Job he would have got something that isn't done every day, even in the movies. It was 8.80 o'clock Fri- day morning, May 26, and the tide Was at the full. Mra, Merklen was hanging out the morning's wash in her back yard which fronts on the river, She heard the screams of Harry's two little companions in the boat and turned the little fellow in the water. Mrs. Merklen dropped the piece shs was about to hang on the line. She Peused for a second to kick off her bumps, then ran fifty feet to the edge of the little wharf, stepped on the slender stringpiece and took a header into the river, She ‘fetched" so long that she came up close to the boy, and with a few vigorous strokes had him under the arms and kept right swimming for opposite where there is a little beach. Unassisted she gave the lad first aid And rolled him over @ barrel, shooting @ young Niagara Falls out of his sys- tem. Crowds gathered from all di- rections in the neighborhood, but there was nothing left for anybody to do but to cheer. “Oh, pshaw!"' exclaimed the gal- lant rescuer, whep asked yesterday about the adventure. “What's that? Why it was nothing. !f my husband was here he would have jumped in but all the men had gone to their Work or out in their boats, and sore ope had to do it.'' Quite accidentally it was learned that this modest litte matron has Made jt a practice for nearly all her life to rescue drowning people. She began when sho was a kiddie of thir- teen and has kept ‘t up ever since. No less than eight persons owe their lives to her courage and prompt work S-boys, girls, men and women—and to average up matters and show that Bbsolute harmony prevails in the Merkien family, last year she saved her mother-in-law. ‘That's quite a change in the moth- er-in-law ‘stuff,’ but the Merklen family is a very happy little one. Mhey have no children, but two moth- rs-in-law and a lot of relatives, The husband, Albert #. Merklen, ts in the moving and trucking business and hes a five-ton motor van, which he operates between Freeport and New York every day but Sunday. « The pretty home of the Merklens, with Sts shady trees and well kept garden, fronts on South Main Street, Where automobiles whiz by all day long; and the back yard is hemmed by, Freeport River, which winds its» way, in sharp bends and tortuous tarna out to Great South Bay. At low tide the river looks more like a gully, but ft is fringed with docks and ware- houses where tons of fish from the bay are deposited dally; and it is filed with Ittle boats and big boats, dories and skiffs, with here and there & houseboat, Fishing is the chief industry of Freeport. Mrs. Merklen learned to swim when she was four years old and developed {nto @ wonderful diver, going off the springboard for a double somersault before touching the water. Her fathor Was a lifeguard for fifteen years at Rockaway Beach, where she made her first marine rescue. Elizabeth was little, but remarkably well developed. She was thirteen. She isn't much taller to-day, but there is strength in every inch of her 5 feet 8 inches of stature, and she's as agile as a col- lage girl graduate. to see on the shore, Edward McCabe was a husky kid of eighteen, who lived at No. 126 Rochester Avene, Brooklyn, when he got out beyond the life rope at Rock- eway Beach. That was eighteen Yeoys ago. Elizabeth Kenny was Playing on the beach with other girls of her own age when she heard the erles of McCabe and then other crics trom frightened bathers, The thirteen. year-old kiddie made a run for/ the breakers and, diving through the surf, swam out to the drowning man, cut- ting the water liko the stem of a trim Uttle yacht. “LAsaie'’ reached McCabe all Began Saving Lives When She Was Only Thirteen Years Old she could see was one of his feet She grabbed tt and tucking {t under her arm, swam back to the life rope. Her father, the life guard, was al ready on his way to meet her, and helped her with her burden to the rope to be taken from there a few moments later by a boat. “Good, little kiddie,” grinned the life guard. ‘You'll do, You've got the nerve." It was the same year that tiny Margaret Jackson, 5, went In swim ming in the old swimming hole at Freeport. But there was a hole ther that little Margaret didn’t know any thing about. Every year they deepen the river for the accommodation of the fishing craft and there Isn't a well de- fined beach anywhere along the river's banks, Margaret stepped on to what she thought was a firm piece of beach and disappeared. She dropped into a mudhole and fortunately there were other children who saw her go and yelled for help. Down into the hole dived Lizzie Ken- ny and when she came up she had Margaret in her arms, They had to get a doctor—Dr. French of Freeport to restore Margaret to conscious- ness. Good old Dr. French has gone to his last rest, and Margaret still lives at No. 18 Orchard Street in Freeport and has three kiddies of her own Elizabeth Kenny, was veteran life saver when she rescued Margaret Flynn, 18, of No. 162 War- 15 and a ren Street, Brooklyn. Margaret was bathing in Great South Bay and was seized with cramps and carried under, ‘The child's mother was watching her from the beach and screamed for help. Elizabeth had finished her swim and was taking 9 shower when her mother eried te her to hurry, hurry. Hliaabeth didn't wait a second. Like ® young deer she made for the spring- board and took @ great long header into the waves and swam with all the zest of her youthful strength out to the spot where the girl had disappear- Them she took another dive and S— i ——— drowned Margaret with her, The girl was unconscious for two hours and a half, and a doctor's services were necessary to bring her to. But she is alive to-day, and has never for- gotten her gallant little rescuer, For this rescue Elizabeth was awarded a medal by the Admiral de Ayes Life Saving Corps, and it was the proudest moment of her life when the medal was pinned on her breast in her home at Freeport. That was the only recognition the courageous girl ever received for her many. rescues. She was Mra, Elizabeth Merklen whon she sayed the life of Miss May. garet Roberts of No, 2! Maple Place, od whon she came up she had the all but,¥reeport. They, were bathing ip Great » 4) M South Bay when Miss Roberts, who was about the same age as Mrs. Merk len, twenty-one, let go the life rope and was caught and carried out by the undertow. Mrs, Merklen, who long before had been hailed as the “Queen of che Waves," was fetching, and Miss Rot erts was swept under her for the full length of her body. She thought It was a shark, and with a feeling of horror she sent herself up above the surface. But the hair of the drown ing woman caught about her feet, which didn’t disturb her at all, but made her realize that there was sum one down there being carried to death. She dived again immediately and caught the girl by the bathing suit BACK YARD WHERE FREEPORT RIVER AT THE SPOT WHERE MRS MERKLEN PER@ FORMED TWO OF HER EIGHT RESCUES - RS MERKLEN WAS HARRY GREEN DROWNING, t with her to the surface. Miss §, 48 soon as she reached tho Brabbed her rescuer-by the The seasoned life-saver ktck- in the side and knocked her r grasp, then caught her again bathing suit. Again the drown- i tried to reach her throat and throat ed her from } by r clawed at her face and neck. But the Queen's feet were as busy as were the girl's hands, She kicked her again into quiet, and then Mr. Merklen made bis first appearance as a life- saver, doubling up with his bride. Between them they got the frantic girl, whose strength in her hysteria pros smarkable, and swam with her safely to the beach, by which time she Was unconscious. It was only minutes when she had re- It was about thirteen years ago that nv John Nolan, 40, fell into Freeport ' fully dressed. Miss Elizabeth en ewWiroming and was still jn sthing sult and on the wharf trom which she dove to the rescue of Uttle Harry Green last week “TM bet you ten dollars you can't Set him," said the girl's father. Elizabeth's answer was to take a header over the stringpiece and swim out to the mudhole where Mr. Dolan had made his last appearance. She got him all right. “I needed the ten," she said cheer- fully, when recounting that experi- ence, a little side issue in her life saving career. Mrs. Anna Jackson of No, 16 Ob- server Street, Rockville Centre, was with a party of merrymakers in the waters of Great South Bay when either a cramp or her inability to swim caused her sudden disappear- ance. She screamed as she went un- der, but her companions apparently paid no attention to her, thinking that #he was having a lark. Those on shore realized what had happened, and Elizabeth was one of tho ob- servers, Out on the springboard and Into the surt she plu 1 and in a moment was on her way to the rescue of the ELIZABETH MERKLEN WHO HAS MADE drowning woman. She knew that time meant everything and bent her best efforts to her struggle. She caught Mrs. Jackson by the hair as she was sinking for the last time and then there was a-repetition of her fight in the water with Miss Roberts. Mrs. Jackson struggled violently and closed with her hands on her res- cuer's arms, at her throat and neck The daring life-saver realized that it meant the lives of both unless she resorted to desperate tactics, fought back and finally landed her foot in the solar plexus of the woman she wanted to save. She saved her by knocking her out. Then there was no trouble in swimming ashore with her, where there were plenty to help her, Mra, Merklen's last rescue befora that of little Harry Green was that of her mother-in-law, Mrs, Clementine Merklen, and it was at the scene of most of her rescues, the old swim- ming hol “Oh, mother Just got over her vadt,"* she sald. “We were all in together That was an easy one.” But mother and daughter-in-law ad have always been very chummy since then, Mrs, Merklen is not only a wonderful diver but an artistic dameer as well, a wonderful waltzer and pop- ular with jaza, “I baven't been doing much swint- ming for a year or so," she sald, “but I'm golng to try and make up for It thls summer.'* of the ornaments of the Free- pert home {s a victrola and all the latest dance records, besides selec- tions from the operas and musical shows fill the racks, Maybe the div- ing fe a3 given way to the dance fetlsh, the joys of the water to the lure of jazs. “Aunt Elizabeth {s a prize-waltzer,"* suid cheery Joseph Mitskeblch, whose aunt she isn't, but who is staying at the house and who ts as fond of her as she Is of the water. “I'll say, she cap jazz, but don't say that I said so."* But there was no appeal of Jaze that carried “Aunt Elizabeth” over~ board when little Harry Green was drowning. It was the call of the mer« ids who love little children, tha appeal of Neptune's spirits who lov those who go down to the sea © in pat iro of the water whosg Merklen fancied sha love Elizabeth had forgotten. And this wes only last week. i