"TIME brings all things"
Cannibal
When Fisherman Eli Kelly drifted to the beach of Santa Catalina Island (TIME, Jan. 3) with the half-eaten body of his partner, James McKinley, in the stern-sheets of his yawl, a coroner's jury began to investigate. Cannibal Kelly, his clothes hanging in folds on his body (he had shrunk from 210 to 120 pounds), last week gave details. The yawl had been a life boat on board the yacht of Novelist Zane Grey. They had food and drink for 24 hours. On the first day after the storm that crippled them, Fisherman McKinley drank all but a pint of the water in a gallon jar. On the third day he began to drink salt water, went mad, was twice washed overboard. Mr. Kelly pulled him back. On the fourth day they made a compact that the man who died first should give his flesh to the other. In the little cabin of the yawl the two huge, gaunt, enfeebled and delirious men shook hands on it. "Yes," said Mr. Kelly, "I carried out our agreement. . . ." The jury absolved him of all blame.
Twig
Near Napa, Calif., one Paul Phelan and one Kenneth Reynolds, University of California students, hunted together through heavy underbrush on a mountainside.
Student Phelan cried out with pain, clawed at his throat, struggled for breath. A manzanita twig had pierced his gullet, breaking off short under the skin. Unable to extract the twig with his fingers, Mr. Reynolds forced his strangling, frenzied friend to the ground, pinioned him, bit into his throat, pulled out the twig with his teeth, lugged him miles to a ranch.
Bone
At Uniontown, Pa., three-year-old Betty Coughanour's eyes popped; her face flamed apoplectically; her mouth gaped. She was choking to death. A bone from a turkey dinner had stuck in her throat. Her father saved her life, for on the dash to the hospital he, frantic, ran the family motor car into another machine. Betty Coughanour, thrown from her seat, coughed up the bone.
Hands
One Redmond Rogers of Middletown, N. Y., obliged a press photographer by holding his palms, lumpy with callouses, in front of the camera; soon saw his picture in newspapers accompanied by a statement that he is never burned while handling red hot metal in a factory without tongs, gloves or other protection. Kitchen workers capable of delving in boiling suds without gloves or pain understood.
Leg
At Waterloo, Iowa, one Mrs. Marlow Tharp found that her wooden leg did not fit becomingly. She refused to pay the salesman, whereupon he boldly unstrapped the leg from her body and ran. Petulant, frustrated, she wept, called the police.
Shock
In Denver, Col., Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Cox lay in bed. Mr. Cox was snoring. Mrs. Cox woke up. She nudged her husband sharply. "Stop snoring," she said. Instantly, he stopped snoring. The two lay side by side in silence. Mrs. Cox did not sleep again. She could not hear the breathing of Mr. Cox, and the absence of this familiar sound alarmed her. She wished that he would snore. She nudged him. "Snore," she said. Mr. Cox made no reply. ... A police surgeon, answering her frantic telephone call, pronounced him dead of heart failure.
Kefter