Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1890-08-22
DROVE A BROADWAY CROWD WlL6.
A Little Fire and a Big Man who Wanted
to Jump from n window.

to Jump from q WindOw.
Lower Broadway had a small fire and a
big sensation one evening just at 6 o'clock
when all the clerks, stenographers, type
writing girls and Office boys were either
going uptown toward their homes or down
town toward the ferries. The fire was in
the second story of the office building No.
las Broadway, on the corner of Liberty
street. The sensation was partly in the
third story of the same building and partly
on the sidewalk below. 1t is a dangerous
part of the city, and an alarm from there,
under Chief Bonner's new schedule, brings
to the spot at once about all the apparatus
there is below Chambers street.
The engines and trucks were all there at
6:02, and several thousand people had stop
ped at the sight of smoke and flame burst
ing from the windows. The crowd had
just finished being interested in the aged
mother of the %janitor, who was hurried
down from the fifth story and carried out
into the street by her three sons, when it's
attention was diverted to a stout, solid
looking middle aged man in a white high
hat who appeared at one of the windows
of the third story on the Broadway front.
The man gazed down into the pillows Of
fame pouring out below him and seemed
to be uneasy about something. He shout
ed to the firemen, and when they paid no
attention to him he took off his white hat
and waved it frantically. The firemen
were busy just then putting out the fire,
and the stout man seemed to feel hat he
was being abandoned to a horrible fate.
In evident desperation he pulled back his
sleeves, took off his hat and threw one leg
over the window sill.
The crowd began to yell at him, and he
climbed clear out on the window sill, hold
ing on with one hand and waving his
white hat with the other. The crowd real
ized that he really did contemplate jump.
ing, and shouted and motioned to him tc
go back. TIL police quit using their clubs
to drive the crowd back from the engines
and shook them instead at the man with
the white hat in a pantomime threat Il
break his head if they caught him on thu
sidewalk. He seemed not to understand
and threw down his white hat, as If h,
thought that he could jump easier with
out it. Then he ben over as if to jump
The crowd went wild, and the policemen
pranced up and down as though the pave
ment were too hot to stand on, and mad,
impolite remarks as they shook their club
at the man.
At last some dim comprehension of wha
all the shouting and club waving mean
seemed to dawn upon the man, and h
climbed back into the room. The crow
breathed easier, but only for a moment
The stout man simply ran from the Broad
way window to one on Liberty street an,
again prepared to jump. He was seeming
ly even more in earnest this time. Tn
crowd surged out of Broadway into tn
narrower street, bearing dow the polio
lines and surrounding the engines, Ever
one shouted: go back!" Don't Jump!
You're all rightp' or some similar adjura
ton at the man. He leaned far out owe
the sidewalk and looked down upon tn
excited throng. As he did so a tall, burl
, man in good clothes and a high hat, VIII
looked as though his lungs might hav
been trained on the Stock Exchange
climbed on top of a hydrant and supper
> ing himself on the shoulders of thos
, around shook a huge fist at the man in tn
, window and beloved in a voice hear
; above the general roar:
G back, you fool, go back"
Either the emphasis of this remark or
9 CLEAN of sense brought the man at last {
al understanding of the fact that he we
4 in no danger, and he again disappeare
from the window. He was seen once MOI
at a window in Broadway, but he did nc
attempt to jump. The firemen by tn
, time had put out the fire, and the man WI
q had caused all the fuss presumably cam
g down stairs in a commonplace fashion an
Z walked away. At any rate nothing mol
: was seen of him, and even his name cou
. not be ascertained.-New York World.
.