"Lieut. Big Feet"

Readers of the Chicago Daily News were recently tantalized and vexed by a tale which its star correspondent, Julian F. Haas, cabled from Nicaragua. The story concerned the U. S. lieutenant "who has the reputation of having the largest foot in the Marine Corps. . . . Every shoe or boot that he requires has to be made to order."

Continued Correspondent Haas: "This young lieutenant . . . whose name we shall not mention ... we shall call him Brownlee, was stationed at a little town called San Rafael del Norte, wherein the wife of Sandino* was employed by the Government as a telegraph operator in the hope that she might give some valuable information as to the whereabouts of her husband."

Seemingly petite and girlish Senora Sandino (see cut) was kept constantly under surveillance by "Lieut. Brownlee." Not a tick of her telegraph instrument, not a whisper in her office, not a letter in her mail escaped "Big Feet."

Soon however the natives of San Rafael del Norte began to question the Lieutenant's motives. They charged him with the only thing of which a U. S. Marine is supposed to be ashamed--cowardice. They insinuated that "Big Feet" was keeping Senora Sandino in her job because he was afraid to fire her--afraid of her husband.

Such at least is the version of the natives' criticism offered by Correspondent Julian F. Haas. Still concealing his hero's name, Mr. Haas went on to relate how "Big Feet" resolved to clear himself once and for all of the charge of cowardice. He called in leading villagers. To prove his bravery he announced he had just sent the following message to General Sandino: "You horse thief! The reason for my not discharging your wife is not that I fear you, as your countrymen here believe, but the fact that I realize she will soon be a widow and I do not want her to be out of a job." In Washington, B.C., last week, officers at Marine Corps Headquarters said that "Lieut. Big Feet" could only be Lieut. John C. Munn, 23, of Stuttgart, Ark., Annapolis '27.

*Famed bandit-patriot Augusto Calderon Sandino, who is still defying some 3,000 U.S. Marines to capture him.