John Earl James helped to save Harold A. Morse from drowning, Monticello, Utah, December 18, 1935. While skating on thin ice on a reservoir, Morse, 15, school-boy, broke through at a point 250 feet from the bank, making a hole three feet in diameter. He was momentarily submerged in water 15 feet deep and then tried to climb upon the ice, but it broke under his arms. James, 27, school-teacher, skated 90 feet toward Morse and then crawled to within reach of him. Kent S. Frost skated to a point 10 feet in the rear of James, who got to his knees and reached over the edge with one arm. The ice broke under James for four feet from the hole, and he went into the water and was briefly submerged. He took hold of the shoulder of Morse, who threw his arms around James’s neck. James purposely went under the surface, taking Morse with him; and Morse then released James. Retaining his hold of Morse, James swam to the surface and placed an arm on the ice, which broke for five feet. Meanwhile Frost crawled on hands and knees to the hole, but the ice broke under him, and he went into the hole. He climbed out, lay prone with his feet at the edge of the hole, and stuck his knife into the ice in front of him. Taking hold of Frost’s skate and keeping hold of Morse, James climbed upon the ice as Frost edged two feet toward the bank. Frost stuck the knife in ice farther from the hole, pulled himself farther from the hole, and James and Morse were aided onto firm ice. All got to their feet five feet from the hole and skated to the bank, Morse being aided by the others.
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