Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-06-20
PREFERS TO WALK UP.
4 Drummer's Experience in an Elevator
That Fell Thirteen Stories.


NO" said Charles A. Seel, Boston
business man. as lie started to climb up to
the fourth story, 81 never ride in eleva-
tors. l suppose | am foolish, but had an
experience in Minneapolis once that makes
me afraid to enter one 1t was in $780, and
[ was fresh young man travelling for a
house in Providence. In large effice
building in that city, which was being
built by friend Of mine, there were two
elevator shafts, and in them were placed
the finest elevators that had been manu-
featured up to that date. With the ele-
vators was an air cushion device which
was newly patented and which had never
been tried. One cay happened up into
the building, and my friend asked me if l
wanted to take a fast trip in one of the ele-
vators.
Il was game for anything those days,
and | said that l wouldn't mind. The man
who invented the air cushion was going to
give practical demonstration of its value,
and had one of the elevator cars hauled up
to the top of that thirteen story building.
He proposed to get in the car and let it
drop, and he wanted some one to go down
with him. The car had been dropped two
or three times with nobody in it, and the
cushions had wor 1ed beautifully. That
The inventor a couple of reporters and
myself were to go down with the car.
had given my prom Use that | would take
the trip, and although | would have given
all that possessed to stay out of the car
after found what was expected of me,
screwed my courag re up to the sticking
point rather than be laughed at, and when
the inventor said everything was ready
got in.
1.-The door was locked a moment after
entered, and when l saw that there was
no escape | forced up n sickly sort of
grin and looked around. l was so scared
that my legs shook under me, and the re-
porters were in cXa ,tly the same physical
condition. The inventor puttered around
fixing everything il shipshape and we sat
on the seat and trenbled in unison.
FINALLY everything was ready, and the
inventor gave the word. The rope that
held the car up was cut, and the trip be-
gan. 1t is utterly impossible to describe
the horrible sensation that l felt when that
car shot downward My head swan and
black and red spots danced before my eyes.
The swiftness with which it fell was in
credible. 1t actually fell so fast that our
bodies could not Keep up with it, and we
rose from the floor IS if going in the oppo-
oppressed with the most abject fear and
horror. The two reporters were in the
same shape, and the three of us were con-
tident that we would be dashed to pieces
at the bottom of the shaft. The inventor
was calm, though very pale
The trip took but a few seconds and
every foot that we fell the car increased
its momentum. 1t seemed that we fell for
a century and l prayed that the bottom
would soon he reached so that we might
be relieved of our sony. As said, was
perfectly confident that l would never
leave the car alive, and was almost willing
to die if the fearful falling motion would
only cease. l was just about to faint when
the speed Of the can slackened gently, and
finally it stopped at the bottom of the
shaft so slowly and gently that the water
in glass that sat On the floor of the car
was not disturbed OF rippled.
we got out hurIiedly and the cushion
was pronounced a success. / went to bed
and staid there for week before l recov-
cred my normal condition, and now when
| get in an elevator that feeling of dread
comes over me and ] can't help it. There
fore l always walk. Buffalo Express.