The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1881-04-08
A DIVER FOR THE DEAD.
An Old Man Whose Living g. Made In the
Bottoms Of she Rivers.

bottoms al she Rivers
| New York Tribune.l
At No. SO Cranberry street, lives John
| III. Brewer, who has been engaged III
the business referred to for almost a life
time. A Tribune reporter found the
old man in the small courtyard adjoining
his humble home. He SAID he was John
FL. Brewer, the person the reporter was
In seaach of.
Eve been in the business of grapplin'
and divin' for over fifty years, for | be-
gan when was about twenty, and I'm
nigh onto seventy-four now. I've done
grapplin and wreckin' i'll the East and
| North Rivers, in the Long Island Sound,
at Sandy Hook, and at He'll Gate, and
have always succeeded in maxim apretty
good livin' out of it, l can tell you. I've
raised thousands of tons o railroad iron,
anchors, big and little, chains, cables,
besides canal boats, bodies, and rings,
watches, lockets, and other jewelry.
One of the best jobs I've ever had was
durin' the war, when the government
was buildin' an iron clad at the navy
yard. Eighty-four steel plates, each
fourteen feet long, four feet wide, and
three inches thick, were lyin' near the
dock The weight was too much for the
old pier, and she broke down, sendin
the plates to the bottom of the East
River. They sent for me, and asked me
to get the plates for 'em. l said would,
but l wanted $40 for each plate i got
out They were satisfied, and l went to
work. We'll. Brewer, said the Capt'in,
Il s'pose it'll take you couple q days to
get one o them plates up Days? said
/. Jest you come back in an hour or
an hour an half. an I'll show you
somethin'r He laughs kinder, and walks
off, thinkin' I'm BLOWN. Well, LEST got
my grapplin' hooks round them plates,
and when the Captin came back j he'd
three on the pier. L jest tell you he
opened his eyes.
ga Spanish brig dropped a Gag of dol
lars that she was takin out to South
America overheard in the harbor here, O
very strong tide runnin' at the time, and
the divers that were sent after the Gag
soon gave it up as bad job. Somebody
told the Spanish Capt'in about my luck
in findin' things, and he sent for me.
He offered me $500 to get up that Gag
/ went down, and, KNOWN the harbor so
intimately, l soon found it. But here
was fix; the bottom of the Gag had
fallen ont and the dollars were strewed
around it. Well, L jest went aboard
ship again, got my scoop net an went
down again. Then l put the dollars all
back in the Gag, fastened my scoop net
over it and had it drawed up. So made
my 5000.
"Have you brought up many bodies of
drowned persons?"
"Well, should just say had over
fifty, i guess. A great many women,
too. They seem to be kind o fond o
drownin' themselves One o the queerest
cases L can remember was that of a
Waterman at North River dock. He
had gone at night to his dock, and the
next mornin his hat was found lynn in
the dock. but he was gone. Well, they
scraped the river for his body, high and
low, but couldn't find him. They sent
for me when they was at their wits ends,
and / went to hunt him up. was a
good deal puzzled at first that he
shouldn't be at the bottom of the river,
but at last / thought of lookin' at the
piles. There sure enough / found him,
with arms and legs SO tightly clasped
around the pile that L had good deal of
trouble in gettin him off. He had evil
IDENTIFY fallen in the water and tried to
skin up the pile, but his strength gave
out before he was half way up, and he
was drowned. Another case, L remem-
Der, was that of son of rich man, who
was drowned while bathin' off South
Ferry. Well. the father tried everything
to get the body; engaged divers, had
cannon balls fireu into the river, so that
they would stir up the bottom and the
water d force the body up. But it was
no use, the body couldn't be found.
The divers gave it up, sayin' it had
probably been swept out to sea by the
strong tide runnin' at the time. At last
they sent for me, and offered me big
reward to find the boy. Now the secret
of my success in findin' bodies was that
l always found out how the tide had
stood when one bad got lost, and went
down at the exact turn, CROPPED along the
bottom, and always found it. / done the
same in this case, but the tide'd been so
strong the day the boy was lost that he
had drifted a good ways along the bot
tom. At last / found him. But how?
1 tell you it was awful. Wedged under
an anchor chain. decomposed and half
eaten up by fishes. / found the lad. 1
had to go up three times before I got
him 10y pieces. 1t was a terrible Job.
Yes, I've made great deal of money by