The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1895-09-10

Does Not Prevent Her as She is Deter
| mined to DO Something that Would Sc
| cure Her Employment at Dime Mus
cum, so She Fills Her Stockings with
Sand and Drops Offices to the Bottom
but is Rescued and Resuscitated After
Much Work.
New York, Sep. 9.-Mrs. Clara Near
| thur, the young woman who attempted
| TO jump from the Brooklyn bridge ten
! days ago, but was prevented from do
ing so by the police, dropped off quietly
in the darkness at $3.50 o'clock this
morning, and is now lying at Hudson
Street hospital, prisoner, under the
formal charge of attempting suicide.
Although when she was picked up She
apparently recovered from the effects
Of her jump by o'clock, and viii prob
ably be able to be arraigned in court.
The latest bridge jumper seems TO
have been moved to the feat, not so
much by desire for notoriety as by her
wish to earn living for her husband,
who is a railroad man out of work, and
her 5-year old child. The man has been
without work for some time, and the
family has been living in poverty.
Meanwhile as the rent fell behind and
the cupboard grew bare, according TO
the Story she told when arrested by the
bridge police on making her previous
attempt, her mind had been inf1amed
by persons who told her how easily
she could earn 500 week by jumping
from Brooklyn bridge, and afterward
appearing in a museum.
On the previous occasion her little
child went with her in the carriage
which took her over the bridge. The
woman, it was learned on the former
occasion, did not even know how 10
swim. That she escaped with her life
today is merely a matter of luck.
Mrs. Macarthur was driven on the
bridge in a furniture van from the
Brooklyn end this morning. She was
dressed in a mans clothing, consisting
of pair of trousers, blue wooden sweat |
er, covered with a common blue jumper |
stockings and heavy shoes. The stock |
ings were much too large for her, and |
were filled with sand, in order to give |
the necessary weight TO her feet and |
prevent her from turning over in the |
air. Round her waist and outside the /
jumper she wore an American flag. |
Bound around her body and attached |
to the waist, held by short strings, |
were two ordinary bladders, intended |
TO serve the same purpose as a para |
chute.
On reaching the middle Of the bridge |
the woman slipped off the wagon in |,
which she had been concealed. and. |
climbing the fence which separates the |
north roadway from the railroad track |
dropped feet foremost through the |
space between the Orders. She was |
noticed only by a bridge policeman, |
-hn bn nfs ay-1 tn1 70 la
sergeant. merely saw a dark form in |
the roadway, which disappeared i'm |
mediately under the railroad track |
near the New York tower. The police |
man did not suspect even then that |
anyone had jumped, and the first intel |
ligence of the fact came from the Old /
Slip Police station, near the battery, in |
New York.
The bladders tied to her burst as she |
she struck the water. She sank, and |
John McNally and William Hartman !
who were padding about in a small |
boat under the center of the bridge had |
great difficulty in rescuing her. McNal- |
ly had to dive again and again for her. |
Finally Hartman dragged him and Mrs |
Macarthur aboard, and pulled for shore |
as rapidly as possible. McNally was |
exhausted. and the woman was uncon- |
sciOus. One of them tried to resusci- |
tate her, while the other ran for a po- |
liceman. Patrolman Edwards called |
an ambulance, and the surgeon, DR.. |
Kennonson, worked for half an hour |
over her, and then hurried with her to /
the Hudson Street hospital, where, af-
ter being reSuscitated she said:
II took the jump for my husbands |
sake" she declared. I'VE are poor, and |!
he has been out of work a long time"
She is bruised badly about the right |
side, where she struck the water. She |
suffered from being under water so
long.