St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-06-22

A GREAT FAKIR He.
How Edward Gluek Made His
Big Plunge From the
Bridge.
Slid Down the Embankment
and Dropped Into the
Water.
Levi Patterson Dies From the
Effects Of His Awful
Fall.
Beckett the Produce Man.
The Needle Work Guild
--Other News.

Edward Gluek is a pretty clever fell
low for an ordinary t'dock w%alloper,"
and has succeeded in getting himself
advertised pretty well. He is the fellow
who came here a short time ago to visit
his relatives, the big brewers family,
and brought with him a woman whom
he introduced as his wife, but who
turned out to be a common cyprian. He
came up from New Orleans, where he
had hustled barrels and boxes OF the
wharveS for a livelihood until his father
died, leaving him about $4,000. He
spent the money on the cyprian and
then married her. After visiting his
relatives here for a short time the pre-
cious pair went to st. Paul. where the
woman left him, going to Cincinnati
and entering a house of ill-fame.
Edward pretended to become de-
spondent. and raised quite a
row, although his relatives re-
fused to allow him to raise any
money from them on the strength of it.
lie was getting into pretty hard fnan-
cial straits, and concluded that, in order
10 raise the wind. he would have to
create a sensation of some kind. He
figured that his relatives would relent
and u%nloosen their purse strings, and
his wife, too, might decide that it was
better to support him than pay for his
burial. Accordingly, early yesterday
morning, shortly after the town clocks
had t0lled the hour of II, he wandered
down to the Washington avenue bridge.
Infant IN Aninr cnrnnthinr fhof unn1A
insure his name appearing in the morn
Ing papers.
He met Officer Sieyerling. and judi
ciously told him his name, and that he
was related to Giuek the brewer. After
the officer had gotten across the bridge
young Glaek proceeded to the other
end and, sliding down the somewhat
steep embankment, jumped into the
river. taking good care to call in a o
of voice that would reach the police
mans ears.
me Gawd! me Gawd?' is what the
Officer heard, and turning around, he
saw that the mar whom he had been
talking TO but a moment before mad dis
appeared.
it Immediately flashed across his
mind that The man had committed sui
eide by jumping owe the railing into
the river below. He ran to the railing
and peered into the blackueSS beneath.
He heard another cry and the %splashing
of the body in the water. 1t was GIuek.
who was floating on his back. chuck
ling to himself and churniug his arm
wildly in order to make a noise. OF
course the officer did not
know that and so he sounded
the alarm. The morning report
erS learned of the terrible suicide
alidn chrouicled the am in their re-
speCtive papers. In the meantime the
supposed suicide was having a bath and
lots of fun. though he found it pretty
hard to float down with the current,
even though an expert swimmer. When
he got down as far as Heinrick's brew.
ery-lt seemed the most natural thing
in the world for him to steer for the
b~rewery-he swan ashore. The police
officers made a thorough search for him
in boats, and when they reached the
brewery found the supposed corpse
waiting for them. The bath had done
him a lot of good, and when the officers
found him he was in the best of moods.
He said he had fallen of the bridge,
and told the same story to the police
Judge when arraigned for vagrancy.
He pleaded guilty to the charge, but
was released on suspended sentence.
his friends promising to ship him off to
Cincinnati. In speaking about his
plunge into the river he said:
'My feet were braced against the
bottom of the railing and as | leaned
over l lost my balance and fell yer. l
hung on as long as l could. and when |
struck the water [ hurt my side. but
had strength enough to swim about 400
feet down stream until L could make a
landing. l had been drinking some"
The absurdity of this statement is
made apparent by a visit to the bridge,
from which he claims he fell. In the
first place the iron railing is nearly five
feet high, and it would be impossible to
fall over it, as he says he did. In the
second place, had he fallen from the
bridge Oyer where the water is deep
enough to allow for a mans body being
submerged. he could not have reached
the river without first breaking through
a labyrinth of telegraph wires. which are
strung along on either side. The bridge
is also e~ighty-five feet from the road
bed to the water and including the rail-
ing, over which he claims he fell,
ninety feet. Were it possible for him
to have escaped touching the telegraph
wires in his descent, he would either
have been paralyZed or killed outright,
from the shock of striking the water.
The water is very shallow in the river,
except near the st. Paul end of the
bridge, where it is possibly fourteen
feet in depth. This particular spot is
the only place under the bridge deep
enough to submerge a man sta nding
upright. The current is also so swift,
that not even a professional jumper,
with diving clothes on, could make the
descent from the bridge and live.
A GLOBE reporter and one of the
bridge watchmen, who was on duty at
the time Gluek claimed lie fell off, made
investigation, and found the exact place
where the wonderful dock walloper"
slid down the bank. The bruises he
had on his hands and which he claimed
were caused by clinging to the railing
when he found himself falling, were re
,eeived by clinging TO a small sapling.
He evidently found himself going down
the embankment at TOO rapid a rate and
grasped the sapling to stop himself, for
it is bent double and almost uprOOted.
The watchmen referred to, says he saw
a mau answering Gluek'S description
going down toward the embankment
and he is pretty sure that it was he. He
says it is Impossible for a man to fall off
the bridge, as claimed by Gluek.
Taking it altogether. young Gluek
accomplished considerable by his little
swim down stream and has much to con-
gratulate himself for. He may con-
graduate himself that he did not rip his
trousers in an uncomfortable place
when he slid down the embankment,
that he had a bath. that he did mol Sc
lect the garbage dump to jump off from,
that he escaped the wOrkhouse. that he
got q iekpt tn Cincinnati. and that he
got a lot of newspaper advertising.