Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1891-09-03
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.
Headlong Jump from a One Hundred
and Fifty-Foot Tower.
A Dirty and Satisfying Trip-The Park
Place Horror Pollution of the
Croton Water-A Park
Scene.

Croton Water-A Park
Scene.
Special correspondence of The Chronicle.
New YORK, September l, 1891.
saw an unique and terrible entertain
ment at Rockaway Beach. ROckaway
is few miles beyond COney Island, and
you go to it usually in a huge excursion
boat. The sail is extremely pleasant,
and the place is almost as attractive as
Coney Island, though it has not prosper
ed. The largest hotel in the world was
located here, but it did not pay, and was
sold and taken away in pieces. To bring
the crowds, the men to whose interest it
is to have the people come, play on their
shuddering love of the horrible. They
provide man whose business it is to
jump daily from towering wooden
structure $50 feet high into net stretch
ed at the bottom. The scaffold runs up
like an oil derrick, only larger and higher
The man comes out at the hour advertis-
ed. He is dressed in tights, and bows to
the cheering crowds. He goes up the
ladder quickly, and looks small as he sits
down at the top to rest and nerve him
self. AS he rises and comes to the edge,
the suspense among the people is some
thing awful. The net at the bottom is
perhaps thirty feet square, and in the
center is padded place six feet square
The jumper stands looking down, and
some nervous, gaping women fairly
shrek. do not believe that one-half OF
them see him go over They turn their
heads away as from a scene of death.
The man bends his knees and sim
ply falls forward. When his head is
downward, ne straightens out his legs
by pressing his feet against the under
side of the board at the top. This straight
ening out sends him flying down head
first. Watching him closely, you will see
him hang his feet forward and bend his
head under. The padded center of the
net strikes him fairly between the shOul
ders, and he flies up into the air, falls in
the meshes and struggles to the ground.
The eagerness with which such feats
as this are watched shows that right here
in the center of ChristendOm, there is
plenty of the feeling that in ancient Rome
demanded the bloody scenes of the gladi
torial arena, and that to-day applaudS tht
barbarous performances of the bull fight
in Spanish countries, and of the prize
ring all over the world.
***
Summer visitors to New York should
not fail to go out fishing in one of the
many boats that daily take large numbers
to the fishing banks. The trip is cheap, dir
ty and satisfying. If you do nothing
else, dress yourself in old clothes. You
can hire tackle and buy bait on the boat.
If you are landlubber, and have never
been out much, you are very likely to
get seasick That is small matter, how
ever. There are many just like you
aboard, and you may upheave where you
wilton the deck, on the man next you
or over the rail, if you can reach it
When the boat strikes the heavy swell out
side, and the cheerful sounds of the sick
at-stomach begin to be heard, the unfeel
ing onlookers cry out in derision, stop the
boat" "Let me off," and other pertinent
things. That too is small matter. The
The boat reaches the banks and is an
chored. Everybody throws over line.
They form network, cast down as they
are, by all who can crowd into place on
the three decks. ENHANCEMENT of lines
and hooks is inevitable. Curses fly up
and down in picturesque profusiOn.-
"Blankity blank you" shouts fisher be
low to one above, take your hook up, or
I'll cut your line" "Just try it, you
calls back the fisher above, leaning over
and shaking his fist. There is no fighting:
every one curses every one else, but there
are no blows. Perhaps one side of the
vessel has no luck, whereupOn they raise
the cry of Move the boat" 1t is taken
up by all others who are restless and
don't care. If the chorus is loud and long
and strong, anchor is weighed, and the
boat moved mile or so. They stay OUT
all day. If you have quietly fished, you
will bring home good catch. But you
will be bedaubed all over with slime from
fish, beer which has been spilled on you,
juices from lunch baskets, and the con-
tents of uneasy stomachs. For your sea
sick man must vomit, and if you are in
his way, he cannot help it.
When you return, you are tired, hun
CRY, disgusted. You will not want to go
again, but you will have been glad you
went once.
***
The scene of that frightful calamity
of last week is Park Place, one of the
very busiest of those swarming cross
streets of lower New York. The great
streams of the city's life flow up and
down chiefly in the Broadway channel.
Thousands of men, women and children
obtain their livelihood on these tributary
streets, by daily work. On that Satur
day near hundred were at work in the
now ruined building. There was res
taurant on the ground floor, crowded with
midday eaters, and the street in front was
crowded with busy men, and playing
children. There came a cracking, startled
cries, an awful roar and cloud of dust.
The building had sunk into heap.crush
ing and mangling many of the inmates.
In a moment the flames came, roasting
to death those unfortunate ones who had
not been killed outright by the fall.
1t is now clear that the accident was
due to negligence on the part of the build
ing inspectors. The place was death
trap. 1t was of five stories. The two