"Hey YOU SKINNY $Mf You look like I SOMETHING I THE CAT ■ DRAGGED IN!" Come on, PAL, NOW YOU „ft« in 10 EASY MINUTES of FUN a day Get a NEW HE-MAN BODY For Your OLD SKELETON FRAME! I GAINED 60 LBS. HOLD IT, MR. HERO / UNBUCKLE YOUR GUN BELT? ONE FALSE MOVE AND I'LL (ILL TOi And upstairs... J- UP* WHILE BORIS WORKS I THE REST OF YOU TURN THE > I Hsff PLACE INSIDE < UTf \ k THIS MUST LOOK LIKE 1 ■^A BURGLARY. ~J f^SHS^jtm''''"^ ^ iiiLtm SI w\ wHe Vr tm [\vf/ Later, when the papers ore replaced and the safe locked... LOOKS LIKE YOU'VE GOT TRESPASSERS, WHISKERS. / I ALWAYS CARRY A GEIGER COUNTER WHERE-( EVER X GO, BECAUSE THE COUNTRY NEEDS URANlU YOU'RE NOT SCIENTISTS, NO, OUR FOSSIL- FINDING INSTRU- MENTS CONTAIN deal ouA .Some weeks ■ Iqter. i n Washington, D..C. . | — ^ 1 rp ) r thoughtmaybe V'she will be sentenced YOU'D TELL ME WHAT) TO AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP. SONIA'S SENTENCE / WE'VE BEEN ABLE TO ^ iktatmr HOWDY— I LIKE TO DEPOSIT MY MONEY, THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS? IT'S ALL I GOT IN THIS WORLD ! JESS SMALL IS MY NAME, f YOU MADE A WISE CHOICE MR. ROBERTSON.' I*D LIKE [WHEN YOU PICKED HILL- TO INVEST IN A RANCH OR J VILLE, MR, SMALL. THIS . FARM F And so Art, the Artist — alios Jess Small, came to Hillvllle.' He spent weeks inspecting farmsites and acreage, but then, one Saturday afternoon, he received a telegram. ■■ ,„ Vi» H* 8 I I'll open at seven for/ thanks.mr. I And so at seven sharp—Monday morning.. |YOU MR. SMALL-- I'LL .V ROBERTSON" E HEREPERSONALLV/ 1 THANKS I LOT.' The bank got half the money back, as the two confederates were soon captured, but the artist had seemingly vanished Into air. So Buster Crabbe decided that perhaps his help was needed after tm*wi But Art has anticipated this predicament and prepared for it... Art swiftly yonks the dangling rope and--- And so thanks to Torzan —Busier and Whiskers ore rescued... TAIN'T NO MARK AGAINST YUH BUSTER, GITTIf/ OUT- _ SMARTED BY THAT ' ARTIST HOMBRE-- lE'S A GENIUS... . A few days later. Buster pays one of the captured confeder- ates a visit.. . WHERE WOULD HE CONTACT YOU IF YOU HADN'T BEEN CAUGHT.' |Soon... 1 ^Kjfe r Si ill COME | .. l ; » ll ■H II III nil THIS TIME YOU'RE NOT GETTING THE CHANCE TO SPRING ANYMORE BOOBY - TRAPS — YOU'RE GOING TO SLEEP< THANKS TO THE CLEVER PLOT HATCHED BY BUSTER CRABBE AND THE HILLS- VILLE SHERIFF, ART THE ARTIST 19 BEHIND BARS AT LAST. THE REPORTED ESCAPE OF NAT (NITRO) RICHARDS WAS THE BAIT WHILE COPS ACP^SS THE COUNTRY WERE SEARCHINC FOR THE FUGITIVE.HE WAS SECURELY IN JAIL--AL- . SAYS HERE A FELLER BAGGED A GRIZZLY BEAR UP IN TH" MOUNTAINS WHUT WEIGHED 1500 LBS.' THAT MUST BE A RECORD.' ifeSfa^mn Wol I wuz out fer bear, an' I come to this big hill overgrown with tall, black, queer-look In' gross., As I turned,! had an uneasy feelin* that somethin' wuz watchin' me... I Th' next thing I knw, I wuz Jumblin' through ;e.' Down,down,down,down.. THERE'S* HERD OF 'EM GRAZIN" ON TH - ROCKS UP EAGLE MOUNTAIN, BUT 1 GOOD TO HUNT 'EM, CAUSE I GOT THE BIGGEST GUMBEROO OF TH' WHOLE SHEBANG,' Whut that berserk beast did to thai town defies description. Murdermonsters wuz mean on' nasly critters. Good thing there ain't many of 'em around today.. WAL.LET ME HAVE TH' I B RUNG IN THE BIG PRIZE MONET. )/ WE'RE EST <3AMEf>-^i GOING TO -• — *r ' FT TOU HAVE > "?{ ( IT, AWRIGHT.' > 'IK ^ SOLDIER OF MISFORTUNE LT. COL. JOHN CHARLES FREMONT was a man who believed in blowing his own horn. He blew it so often and »o loud that he be- came the Nation's most publicized hero in the cighteen-forties. And why not? Had he not blazed trails across the Rockies three times, opening the far west to the pioneers? Had not his singular courage and au- dacity conquered California and added that vast, rich territory to the United States? He had indeed. Who could know that the "trails" he "blazed" were old routes long known to the mountain men? Unlike high ranking Army officers, the mountain men did not have newspaper connections, or want them for that matter. They were interested in trapping and trading and taming the wilderness, and not in personal glory. Now Fremont freed California from Mexican rule, all right, but in a way that would assure his own wealth and power. He disobeyed his superior officers and ignored the policies laid down by the State Department in Washington. He was court martialed and found, guilty. How- ever, the fact that Fremont had placed his own in- terests above that of the government's did not pla- cate the outraged citizens. The newspapers screamed in protest. America's great hero was the victim of persecution by corrupt politicians! The charges of skull-duggcry flew thick and fust. President James Polk, loathe to lose the coming election, decided to make friends and influence peo- ple. He reversed the sentence of the Court Martial and ordered I-'rcmont's reinstatement in the army. But Fremont wasn't going to let his bonanza ol publicity go to waste. Why return to the relative obscurity of the army? No, he was too "proud" to accept reinstatement. He preferred his glorious martyrdom. And besides he had far greater, far more important work to do for his country — he would form an expedition to blaze a trail across the continent for a railroad that would run from coast to coast! A railtsad to span the country was the dream of America. It meant the easy access and easy exploi- tation of the lands beyond the mountains. It ment a new era of prosperity and plenty. It was a dream, and who could better make that dream come true than the darling of the armchair dreamers, the great John Charles Fremont! Fremont had no difficulty in obtaining funds for his expedition. And he had no difficulty finding volunteers for the venture. Fremont must have figured the job would be a cinch. All he had to do was head into the mountains and over some trail already blazed by mountain men and then claim the route as his own new discovery. He had done it before. He could do it again. He soon found out that things wouldn't be quite so simple. Hitherto, he had always been his own boss, more or less, but this time he was engaged by a group of hard-headed business men who hadn't gotten rich>y being foolish. They wanted the publicity Fremont's rfame would give their en- terprise, but they also wanted a railroad. When Fremont announced he was ready, they pointed out that it was summer. They needed a route 'that was passable during the winter, too, The only way to be sure of a mountain pass was to test it in winter. If be could get through, maybe a rail- road could get through. Fremont didn't relish tackling the Rockies in winter, but he had no alternative. He knew that even the rugged mountain men left the rocky slopes to hole up in Indian vilhtges until Spring thawed the snows. He wanted no part of the Northern range, so after studying a crude map, announced that 'he would blaze his trail right through the Rockies, following the 38th parallel. He had no idea of what mountains crossed the parallel, but small de- tails like that never bothered Fremont. Some old tripper would know a pa>s. Kit Carson, whose name has survived the years, knew the mountains as few men did, and Fremont hoped to lind him in that rugged country which is now Colorado. But at Pueblo, he learned that Carson had gone south to Taos. The only other man who knew the mountains like a book was * strange character called Preacher Bill. This man had gone into the mountains around 1820 to convert the heathens. Instead the heathens had converted him. They had done so good a job that Preacher Bill, when the mood was on him, thought nothing of taking another man's scalp. Other mountain men avoided his company except in crowds. Fremont appointed him head guide. Dick Woot- ron and Alexis Godey were next in rank. They were good mountain men but not as familiar with the southern range as Preacher Bill. Although there were only thirty-four men in the expedition, Preacher Bill rounded up 120 mules to replace 12 horses as pack animals. Appalled by this extravagance, Fremont protested. But Preacher Bill was adamant.. The mountains were big and the winter would be long, and mule meat was more nourishing than horse. Fremont must have realized, then and there, that he was in for more than he had bargained for. There was no easy way through the snow-covered mountains. They left Pueblo on November 22nd, 1848. Two days later they arrived at Hard Scrabble* a settle- ment of sorry hovels, and the last piece of "civiliza- tion" if that it could be called on this side of the Rockies. The next day they entered what was to become a world of horror. Three days later Dick Wool ton took a long look at the storm clouds gathering over the mountains and decided he'd rather live a coward than die a hero. He turned around and went back. Later, Kit Carson referred to him as "the only man with a brain in the whole kaboodle." The other thirty-three men crossed the range through what is now called Roudidoux Pass. On December 3rd, haggard and near-frozen, the men stumbled out from a tangle of spruce to see the Rio Grande valley lying green and -inviting far below them. Their jubilance was short-lived, however, for as they began the long descent, dark clouds rolled in, the wind became a gale and a blizzard engulfed them. When they reached the valley the green grass lay buried beneath several feet of snow, They staggered across that barren emptiness which we now know as Great Sand Dunes National Monument. Drifts of sand and snow piled up thirty feet high in the lee of the dunes, and the wind-wipped sand and slivers of ice tore the frozen skin off their faces. Fremont endured the same tortures as his men, but he was risking his neck for a transcontinental railroad, not for the small wages promised the others should they be lucky enough to live to collect them. At what is now the town of Del Norte, the Rio Grande valley rises steeply to continental divide iome sixty miles westward, climbing nearly a mile high in this distance. Around the river, a turmoil of churning water, falls and tefrible rapids, rise towering peaks of awesome rocks. Fremont plunged into the rocks, sending word back along the line that Preacher Bill knew of a secret pass. He cheered their chilled hopes with the promise that the worst was over. Once across the divide and it would be downhill all the way to California. Preacher Bill denied any knowledge of a secret pass, and said that the boss was crazy. But the men ignored him. He was just an ignorant mountain man. Fremont was the glorified conqueror of the West. Through the snow-packed gorges they plunged and up over the icy boulder-strewn cliffs. The mules began to die like flies, from exhaustion and starvation. Twenty died during one night, and at dawn the men were afraid- Fremont held a conference with Preacher BilL Fremont wanted to emit the valley and go up and over. Preacher Bill said, "It's impossible. Ala r t nothin' up there 'cept mountains on top of moun* tains," i\ But Fremont, headstrong and obsessed by visions of glory, decided to take the chance. He brushed aside the warning of the one man who knew any- thing about the region, and started up the mountains. If the men thought that they had crossed mountains before, they now found out what moun- tains were. And they were murder. i They climbed hopelessly over the ever mounting ridges of ice and snow, until even Fremont realized that not even an angel, let alone a railroad, could follow this route. When he decided to turn back, it was too late. Sub-zero weather and hurricane-like winds forced them to take shelter and wait for a break In the weather. The break was a long time coming, and their few remaining mules died in the interval. Twenty-two men survived the ill-fated expedi- tion. Eleven died. The man responsible for this unnecessary loss of life, brooding over the loss of his railroad, as well as his loss of face, went west to California, cursing the luck that had turned against him. He didn't curse for long though, for the gold ruth was on, and gold 'there was. On Fremont's own land grant, a requisition he had made for himself while freeing California for the United States, there was enough gold to make him a multi-millionaire. He observed that justice had triumphed in the end. Although the story of Fremont's expedition was recorded by one of his followers, Micajah McGehee, the story never made the best-seller lists, and it .wasn't until 1950 when the U.S. Forest Service decided to retrace, step by step, the trail over which Fremont led his men, that historians finally realized what an unhcroic hero John Charles Fremont really was. Although the trail was 102 years old, the foresters were able to track it per- fectly. The campfire remains" are still there. So are a lot of tell tale bones, Undisturbed for 102 years no one else had been foolhardy enough to risk the same route. % PHANTOM mLZBC On A STRETCH OF ROAD in the san juan moun- tains, a fallen tree stops the utah- colorado interstate special, and the driver and passengers file out to try to remove the obstruction, 'when suddenly.. . The ear- splitting, sound of gun-fire- qnd then, grim silence.. . Some hours later, miles away from the scent of the slaughter. .. | — HE MEANS YOU TWO ENGINEERED TH 1 BUS MASSACRE ALL BY YOUR LITTLE SELVES, AN' HE KNOWS IT/ THEN THEY'D ROB THE VICTIMS AND BURY THE LOOT TO BE DUG UP LATER. MR. SMITH WOULD INFLICT A MINOR FLESH WOUND ON MARTIN 80 HIS'SURVIVAL" WOULD LOOK The three Braylon Boys stayed In Jail- but only to serve their time.' It was Martin and Smith who walked the long last mile to make a small down payment for their deeds... TREE! 100 POR0GM STAMPS. and ILLUSTRATED BOOKLET What a wonderful way to gel started with one of the world'* moil fascinating hobbies — stamp collecting. Yes, even if you're already an expert, here'i an offer you can't afford to miss! 100 mixed stamps from all over the world; — stamps rich in history — stamps that will tell you of the customs of people in Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa — their architecture, their geog- raphy — and so much more. And all these stamps are genu- ine, unpicked, unsorted — passed along to you just as we received them from every corner of the globe. Perhaps you, like 10 many of our friends, will find that "hidden treasure" you al- ways dreamed of. But that'* not all I Included in this unique offer it a FREE copy of our booklet, "Stamp Collectors Guide" — all you want lo know about this intriguing pastime. This big, big offer may be withdrawn soon so don't wait. WORTH *1.00! GARCELOH Stamp Co. Dept FF-7, Calais, Maine Ruih me FREE 100 Foreign Stamps and Booklet. Enclosed ii 10c for postage and handling. ADDRESS _ CITY. In Spare Time . . . Without Taking A Job or Putting in Regular Hours . . . And WITHOUT EXPERIENCE! tjerE'S a friend ■Tl or full-time! is SNOW luvdy'ruu-'lVvh ClVL-.iiW Gird Aw, loam you Mofce /Honey— and friendt. Too Everyone it. your community sends out groetlnn weds of nil kinds throughout tin; entire year. That's why it's so easy tn make ^oml money .md new friends, inertly hy show- ing soraothina th.it worybody u-aiiti — ana buys anyway, Mail Free-Trial C fltha ul Mono/ or Obligation | FREE BOOK i s* "£;"■." i .„, ,., .„ ... 1 CSi ".BE i !t«SS I JS,™.*SS S S, ^ O.,SFLid.F10» (P»l««llo,< l...| . .„ ,,i )(,„■„■„■.,, |M«hva,N.H.] 1 Office.) | 1 l KfSSK «*,„„ 1 1 ™mZr£Xiw, 1 L_ Hand Out 20 ENLARGEMENT Coupons FREE Talkinq PARAKEET ». j ^1 (BUDGIE Bird) ^-55=T£=a^ Offer of Veautiful And ~ -^ Larqede/nxe^§.(i cage -m GIVEN FRIENDS! I'll be happy to send you this cheerful, talking PARA- KEET (sometimes known as aj "BUDGIE" Bird) that looks like a minia- ture, talking parrot with bright color feathers WITHOUT YOU PAYING A PENNY. In fact, I'll also give you a large, handsome, plastic cage with full exercise ring. Simply help us get new customers by handing out only 20 get-acquainted photo enlargement coupons FREE to friends and relatives, as per our premium letter. I enjoy my bright colored, talking Parakeet so much. It is wonderful company and so easy to care for, that I'm sure you will simply love one yourself. Please send me your favorite snapshot, photo or Kodak picture when writing for your Parakeet and Cage. We will make you a beautiful 5x7 inch enlargement in a handsome "Movietone" frame SO YOU CAN TELL YOUR FRIENDS about our bargain, hand-colored enlargements when handing out the get-acquainted coupons free. Just mail me your favorite snapshot, print or negative NOW and pay post- man only 19c plus postage when your treasured enlargement arrives and I'll include the "Movietone" frame at no extra cost as my get-acquainted gift. LIMIT OF 2 TO ANY ONE PER- SON. Your original returned with your enlargement and frame. Also include the color of hair and eyes with each picture so I can also give you our bargain offer on a second enlargement artfully hand colored in oils for nat- ural beauty, sparkle and life, like we have done for thousands of others. I'm so anxious to send you a cheerful, talk- ing Parakeet (Budgie) and the handsome Cage that I hope you will send me your name., address, and snapshot right away for your 20 Enlargement Coupons to hand out free. Mrs. Ruth Long, Gift Manager DEAN STUDIOS Talking Para- keets are ama/,- injt little birds thiit sinj?, whistle, talk, do tricks, Smull, hardy, clean, Boun- tiful RTC yallc ]■: a k \ pill II to lent Send TODAY Supply Limited <£& 5 Mrs. Ruth Long ■ DEAN STUDIOS, Dept. XO0S | ill w. 7th St., Dei Moinei 3, Iowa ! 1 would likt- to reoelvn th,. tnlfclno I and Cnno. PJenwuend mo premium Pnr.iJ.ct elWr otwj ! I- «"'««>«* < L «'"™> ■ Namo ■ Add™. ....