There are rest cures and rest cures, as everybody knows, but a rest cure embracing bombing, earthquake and cholera is the kind that T.F. Flaherty, father of our agent at Riverside, California, went in for this summer.

Mr. Flaherty’s doctor had prescribed a complete rest, with no excitement, overexertion or worry. A restful cruise on the blue waters of the Pacific seemed to Mr. Flaherty the very thing the doctor had ordered, and so he and Mrs. Flaherty set off on a little trip to the Orient.

They did some shopping and sightseeing in Shanghai, but felt apprehensive when they saw the Japanese gunboats anchored in the Whangpoo River. Sailing for Hong Kong at midnight, however, they escaped the bombs rained down on Shanghai early the next morning.

An epidemic of cholera arrived in Hong Kong a few days before they did, but they escaped it and went to Manila, where fate had another little surprise in store for them. As they were seated in the dining room of the Manila Hotel entertaining friends an earthquake struck, with a fine disregard for medical admonitions. Everyone ran, but Mr. Flaherty, who by this time was thoroughly enjoying his rest cure and was prepared for almost anything, waited until the huge pillars supporting the dining room swayed back and forth before he moved.

After a week in Manila they returned to the President Hoover, ready to return to the peace and tranquility of their homeland, when their ship was commandeered to go within 25 miles of Shanghai to take on refugees for return to San Francisco. They arrived in the region on Woosung about 2 p.m., and found that it was necessary to anchor at the entrance to the Yangtse River to wait for the evening tide to float them over the sandbar.

Mr. and Mrs. Flaherty were resting in their stateroom when at 5:15 the afternoon was quite violently shattered by an airplane doing a power dive close to the ship. As they rushed to the porthole they heard the whining shriek of bombs dropped in quick succession. The ship rocked and shook as a bomb hit the top deck, tearing a 25-ft. hole, plowing through two decks below and demolishing several staterooms.

Unharmed throughout the whole experience Mr. Flaherty now has time to reflect, like many another philosopher, that the things for which we roam the world are often to be found right on our own doorsteps.

[04-01-03-004-0048 Fireman’s Fund Archives]