Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-08-26
IN A RUNAWAY ELEVATOR.
Nine Persons Inside, and the Thing Racin
Up and Down the Shaft.


Up and Down the Shaft.
From the Courier-Journal.
Eight men and boy had an exc iting time in
the Commerce building at noon yesterday. One
Of the elevators got out Of order and theatened
to 60 through the roof. The eight men and
the small boy were unfortunate enough to be
passengers on it at that time. The excitement
lasted but few minutes hardly over three,
but the time Of the nervous strain was variously
computed by those on board at from one to
four hours.
Just before noon two Of the elevators stopped
running, the one nearest to the front door
alone remaining in operation. The elevators
are worked by hydraulic power. and the force
required to work them was thus thrown on
one. 1t was on an up trip that eight men
Mr.. Tom Craig and Mr.. Donald Ross. The door
was closed with bang and the boy pulled
the lever for the ascent In a second the
throttle, as it were, was WIDE open. The ele-
vator seemed travelling at the rate Of sixty
miles an hour, and appeared every second to be
getting on more steam. The elevator boy
worked manfully at the lever, and used every
means to stop the lift, but the machine re-
fused to take hold, and the wild career upward
continued. Suddenly the cage stopped with a
jolt, and the elevator started down at the same
killing pace it had been going upward. Down
two stories 1t dropped, and then as Suddenly
began ascending again. By this time all ON
board wished they were somewhere else. They
looked wildly out on the polished floors, where
safety was, and for the first time realized what
prison runaway elevator is.
Though the boy at the lever exhausted every
resource Of his art, now resorting to skill and
now to strength, the movements Of the elevator
became more and more eccentric
1t went up twenty feet and fell ten. The men
thought they might have led better lives
1t went up thirty feet and fell fifteen. The
elevator boy thought Of some mean things he
had done.
1t went up ten feet and fell twenty. All re-
solved that II they got out alive they would
walk straight and narrow paths for the rest of
their lives.
1t went up fifteen feet and fell thirty, and
then 1t dashed with deadly speed toward the
roof and all the sins that the eight Gagged men
and the one Gagged boy had ever done rushed
before them like q host Of devils. But it
stopped Just in time, and once more reversed
brakes. It stopped with cruel jolts now and
then, but always between the doors, leaving
those on board still Gagged in by wire walls.
Time and again 1t seemed certain that it would
halt at one OF the floors. But it did not, and
hope died again.
Finally, after what seemed an eternity of
torture, the elevator did stop two feet below
one Of the doors. Mr.. Craig was closest to the
exit and hastily throwing back the door he
machine shot upward and it was only by .
hairs breadth that he escaped being crushed
and almost certainly killed.
After his escape the elevator continued to
perform for . minute and then once more
became obedient. The seven men and the boy
got ont o. quickly Il possible. An were very
thankful. The elevator was examined and
found to be in good working order. Tho els-
vator boy got on board and tried Il for o hoor
Or two and returning pronounced everything
all right The elevator never did this before.