Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-03
SHOCKED TO DEATH.
A Telephone Lineman Meets With a
Terrible Fate in st. Louis.
STEPPING ON A FATAL WIRE.
The Dread Current Rushes Through Him
With Horrible Effect
FUTILE ATTEMPTS, TO RESCUE HIM
ESPECIAL TELEeRAM TO THE DISPATCH.

ESPECIAL rELEGRAM TO THE pIsPArcH1
ST. LOUIS, Jan. 2,-James Hanlon, a
Bell telephone lineman, 35 years of age,
was shocked to death by an electric wire at
noon to-day, on pole on the south side Of
Olive street, between Fourth street and
Broadway. As death came upon him, he
fell to the sidewalk, 40 feet below.
This horrible sight was witnessed
by more than 100 persons on the
street or in the windows of the large Office
buildings in the neighborhood. Hanlon,
William Renkel and w. B. Martin, all
linemen, were out strengthening wire and
were almost at the end of their trip when
they reached the alley between Fourth street
and Broadway on Olive street.
AT the mouth Of this alley is the most
dangerous pole in the city. All the small
wire companies such as the telephones,
messenger calls, fire alarm and telegraph
wires, are to be found on this one pole, and
they occupy the upper half. In the middle
are the cables of small wires leading to the
Postal Telegraph Company, and to the Bell
Telephone Company, at Fourth and Pine
streets. Below these are the heavy electric
light wires.
Stepping on the Fatal Wire.
Martin was at the top of the pole among
his company's wires and Hanlon was mid
way between the top and the bottom of the
space occupied by the wires, looking after
the cables of the company. He caught hold
OF telephone cable and supporting wire
and made one step with his left foot and
placed it on an electric light wire, which
had been joined at that point, but not COW
rod r,rbh har fov, loto
When HanIon placed his boot upon it the
current rushed through him into the sup
porting cable wire that he had his hand.
Instantly blue flames a foot long leaped
from his hand and foot and clouds of
smoldering smoke caused by the burning of
his rubber gloves, his boot and his flesh, at
tracted the attention of the people passing at
the time.
A shout was raised, and several persons
called upon Martin on top of the pole TO
rescue the man below him. The wires were
in such tangled state that Martin could
not get down rapidly, and in the meantime
Hanlon. paralyzed BY the current and n
able to move, swayed in agony and did not
utter sound. The flames continued to
issue from the points of contact and the
clouds OF smoke from the burning flesh were
growing in volume.
FuIle AGtemptS at rescue.
The officers of the Madison Car Company,
whose Office window was on level with
Hanlon, raised the window and tried to
reach him, but could not They stood there
helpless, watching the wire burn through
the suffering mans hand and foot. Martin
had by this time reached the arm on
which Hanlon leaned, and was bracing him.
self for powerful lift when Hanlon. who
had been swaying to and fro each second,
let 60 his hold, tumbled backward and,
after brief stop on the heavy wires below
him, dropped head first on the corner of the
curb.
The skull was mashed fiat and the brain.
were scattered over an area of four or five
feet of the sidewalk, and the body was car.
ried to the morgue. An examination
showed that the current had burned through
the boot and half way into the foot and had
burned the thumb of the left hand so badly
that it broke off while the body was being
removed. The body was black and blue all
over and the features of the face distorted
beyond all semblance to the man when
alive.