Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-10-12
THEY SCALED THE CHIMNEY.
Cutters Climb of Two Hundred Feet
of Rope, Hana Over Hand.

Cutters Climb of Two Hundred Feet
of Rope, Hana Over Hand.
From the Philadelphia TIMES.
A brick smokestack, enearly 200 feet in
height stands on the site of the old Morris &
Tasker iron foundry,'oh the north side of
Morris street, betweei 4th and 9Th streets.
The entire block was, occupied by the
foundry buildings until lately, but they
have been torn down one by one to make
room for the encroaching rows of small
dwelling houses, which began on the 4th
street front and are now being built along
the east end Of Morris. street.
A week ago the; work. was practically
stopped because the stack had become an
a snsae and It S hss a IT. Slas
stands on solid foundation twenty feet
square and ten feet high, and it tapers from
a diameter of eighteen feet at the bottom
quarter of a century ago, when they knew
how to build stacks. and was apparently
| constructed to last forever. b,
The contractor wanted to pull the stack
down, but the formidable height and size
made the operation so dangerous to all the
other structures in the vicinity that the
building inspector positively forbade him
to do 1t. The authorities ordered that the
stack be taken down, brick by brick, and
| recommended that the work be commenced
at once.
The work of razing the stack must of
necessity begin at the top. and the first eff
| fort of the contractor was to get a man up
| to its smoke-blacked mouth. Various plans
were suggested, and finally the job was in
trusted to Thomas Cutler. who. with three
helpers. essayed to get q rope up through
| the interior Of the stack on Tuesday after
noon. Cutler Is a well-known rigger, and
has reputation for getting away with just
such tough contracts as this one appeared
| to be.
Tn, "a i,,rf la 10 Il
Cutler broke a hole in the bricks and NOR
| tar big enough to permit a man to squeeze
through.
| Cutler and his assistants unloaded large
coils of rope of all sizes, and then produced
a bunch of powerful sky rockets. At sight
of these the crowd gave a shout One of
the ringers crawled inside the stack with
the rockets, and the coil of the thinnest
rope was pushed in after him. For while
| the eager watchers held their breath, well
Knowing what was going on. Then the legs
of the man were seen coming slowly out
of the ragged hole in the slot, and when
OF 1y his head and arms were on the inside
he struck a match, ignited the fuse Of q
rocket ard quickly slipped out.
In an instant there was sizzle and
sharp report, and the hundreds of pairs Of
eyes turned skyward saw the rocket with
the rope trailing after it shoot out of the
top of the stack and soar high in the air.
1t threw out some colored fire that was al
ncst invisible In the bright sunshine and
row, bringing the end Of the rope with 1t.
The crowd cheered, and Cutler was for the
moment the biggest hero the neighborhood
had known for years.
Having got the thin rope safely over the
top a thicker one was fastened to 1t and
drawn comepletely through. This process
was repeated four or five times until a rope
an inch and half thick was in place. One
end Of this was made fast to an iron
stanchton outside and the other dangled
along the east wall on the inside Cutler
directed one Of his men to climb up this
for the purpose Of making block and
tackle fast on the top, and Geo. Brennan.
an old fireman. undertook the job.
He started up the rope hand over hand,
getting what support The could for his feet
from the ragged edges of the bricks. but
when less than half way up he stopped,
struggled for half miHute desperately and
then began to slide rapidly earthward. He
reached the ground with no other injuries
than blistered hands and bruised knees, but
II was long time before he could get his
breath. He said he did not believe any man
could make the ascent unless he was also
tied to the tail of a rocket as the first rope
had been. tro
Cutler, however made the next attempt,
hand shaking down. the SCOT and dirt In
black clouds, and when his head appeared
over the top of the stack he looked as If he
had been painted black. The crowd gave
him another cheer, and he raised his hand
kerchief in return. He looked no bigger
| than sparrow at the great height, and 1t
could be seen by the way his clothes Mapped
about that he was catching brisk breeze.
He stayed up all the afternoon and rugged
hereafter and lowering baskets full OF
bricks