TO THE RESCUE

Hokitika Guardian, 18 May 1929, Page 8

TO THE RESCUE

In the olden days, when melodrama was in flower, the missing son always turned up “just in the nick ol time” to save the old homestead from the avaricious village despot who was about to foreclose the mortgage (says die “Christian Science Monitor”). He never missed urc. As a rule, he arrived on horseback, and the clatter of tne horse’s hoofs, artificially produced by a lusty stage hand, was the signal for an outbreak of applause, inteusined a moment later by the appearance of the hero as he hurst .liroiigh the kitchen door, amid an ava.anche of paper snow and the wild screech of a well-executer stage wind, to place in the hands of his greylmired lather the .ends to make him free.

In this 2()th. century it would not he in goal form to ring down the curtain on any such climax. No still-kneed steed no nauter how realistic the stage elfccts, could ever feature in a pre-sent-day rescue of the dear old farm from flic mercenary hands of “the coun.ry squire.” There would have to be at least the illusion of an automobile tearing down the turnpike at a speed of 7d mhos an hour. But out in Missouri, a new standard for a sensational climax to foreclosure proceedings was set when “the missing son” anna ml in an aeroplane, just as the hammer was raised for the “Who’ll make the first hid ?” on his father’s farm. The young man had left home with borrowed money to learn to he an aeroplane pilot. For a. time he wrote, home and then the letters stopped. The lather struggled along name, l he crops wore not what they should have I,een, and neither the taxes noi iho interest oil tlie mortgage could be mc*i. Then came foreclosure and notice of sale from the steps of the county courthouse. No melodrama oi tiie early ’nineties could have had a hotter setting. There were the fanners from all over the countryside, the father brave in the face of seeming defeat, the women folk in the automobiles,. the slurilf describing the proper .y, and on the scene the sun shining hright.y. ..And then the roar of an aeroplane and tits swift descent int;. an adjoining field,' ,an aviator scrambling out of the cockpit, the iarmors standing, agape or scurrying to the landing place. The aviator is fimnng towards the courthouse, he is waving his hdfids’'and shouting, the sheriff halts proceedings for the moment, the father recognises “the long lost son,” the money to pay the mortgage is in his hands—and the oh! homes'ead is saved. Surely no mel - drama of tlie last century had such a sensational climax as this, nor furnished a prettier line than the word® (if the father—leaving the courthouse arm in arm with his hoy—“ Ain’t ho a a lie bov I”