Judge — October 1937 — page 17: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

1o t@ 'o FO FM EME EXPLAIN THIS IF YOU CAN Win I was in college the grand- father of one of my particular friends walked out of his house at 9 o'clock of a morning to go to his office, and was never seen again. Just like that! Nine o'clock of a bright Spring morning, in a street filled with neighbors, and with friends. Gentlemen of seventy odd do not elope, or run away to sea, and, if they are oyertaken with amnesia, sooner or later they turn up somewhere. Besides, as I have said, nobody saw this particu- lar grandfather from the time he left his house. In the experience of almost everyone are cases, near or well substantiated, of le who have disappeared. Literally! ea the earth had smllowed them up. Or they had melted into the ether. had been dragged by their hair up to heaven. Or their heels down to hell. FRIEND of mine has a country place in an isolated part of Maryland, and at one time his next door neigh. bors belonged to an ancient and re- spected family. A distinguished family. A family whose sons for generations had been in the government, or the army, or navy, or in education. One winter night the youngest daughter of this house lay dying. She had pneumonia and was unconscious. The doctor had just left to be gone a little while, and in the house at the moment there were only the dying girl's father and mother, sit- ting downstairs, three servants, and a trained nurse. Outside was a fresh fall of snow, but the storm had cleared. The other members of the family had been summoned from various parts of the country, but had not yet arrived. For a few minutes the nurse left her patient to repare something necessary in the itchen and was seen by the servants and the parents. When the nurse re- turned to the bedroom, her patient was gone, nor was there any trace of her. All around the house was fresh snow, and the only tracks were those of the departing doctor. ‘or a year the best detectives in the country worked on the case with no results. EN miles back of the ranch where I am now living, back against the Con. tinental Divide, three years ago a girl was lost. Nobody has found her since. For a month and a half, and longer, up- wards of two hundred and fifty men hunted her. They repeatedly combed the country in military Formatioa, ten yards apart, and out in advance were at least fifty trained Far Western trackers, and when you say that, you mean men to whom the faintest sign tells a fairly com. plete story; a bent twig, a blur in the grass. In addition, there were blood- hounds from Colorado and airplanes. Now, this girl was a Wyoming girl, October 1937 accustomed to the mountains and to hunting. Moreover, she was a strong girl, squarely built. Furthermore, she was a bride of only a week. She and her young husband had come in on their honeymoon and were staying at a little hunting lodge back. in the hills. The October afternoon, bright and clear, of their arrival, they had walked out alone to look for elk. According to the bride- groom's story, after a couple of hours he had left his wife sitting on a log while he had hunted elk for a mile or so further. When he returned to the lo, his wife was gone. He searched an called until dusk, and then making his way back to the lodge, gave the alarm. That night fires were lit and signal guns were shot. The next morning the entire country was on the search. If that girl’s body had been in the country it would have been found. Bur- ied deep, and however cleverly, flung into a canyon, hoisted to the top of a tree, it would have been found. Even if trained men, and bloodhounds, and air- planes had failed, before long those best of detectives, hawks and eagles and coy- otes would have been on the job. There is only one normal explanation, and that is, that the girl walked to the highway and hailed a car, but the re- ward offered would have sooner or later turned up the driver, and the real point is, that there were no tracks. Not a single track anywhere. Plenty of tracks of the bridegroom—yes. Also the tracks of the girl to the log, but no further. Explain that if you can, Explain any number of things that happen. "RE a wonderful generation, scien. tifically trained. We believe only what scientists and other experts tell us. As a result, we're one of the most puz- zled and bewildered generations in his- tory. We believe so little that we have created in our minds a vacuum into which all manner of nonsense can blow. All we ask in an unreasonable world, is “reasonable” proof. —STRUTHERS Burt. TRA ROCKY MT. uimitep “Mother... Daddy... E-e-e-e YOW-HEE!” comicbooks.com