The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-09
A LADS PRESENCE OF MIND.
How Jersey City Schoolboy Averted
Panic.

How Jersey City Schoolboy Averted
a Panic.
Robert Balm recently prevented serious
accident in Public School No. % at Marion,
near Jersey City. There were sounds of
panic from the room beneath his class
room, and no one can tell how many
children might have been injured but for
his cool head and quick thinking. He did
what any bright American boy should
have done, but what scarcely one boy in a
thousand would have done.
The two lower floors of the Marion Public
School are occupied by the classes of the
primary department and the top floor is
occupied by the grammar department..
The building is heated by steam. One of
the radiator valves was broken off the
other day. While waiting for chance to
repair, the break the janitor carefully
turned off the steam at this radiator and
fitted tight wooden plug in place of the
broken valve. Some very foolish person,
either for the sake of joke or from habit
of meddIing with things without asking
leave, turned on the steam. The radiator
was in one of the classrooms of the upper
primary tioor-that is, the middle floor of
the bulldlng-says George Harper's Round
Table.
The wooden plug was shot out of the
radiator with report like pistol shot at
quarter past 10 O'Clock in the morning.
Every child IN the room rushed screaming
toward the sliding door leading to the
stairway. So fierce was the impetus of the
crowd that the door was twisted off its
tracks and turned halfway around. Miss
Agnes Carlen, the teacher. was unable to
control the children, for they had swept
past her before she really understood what
had happened. She stood helpless. half
falnting, fearing that the heavy sliding
door would fall and crush her pupils.
At the moment of the explosion and
panic the boys and girls of the grammar
panic-stricken. They heard the loud re-
port beneath them, the kissing of steam,
the screams and the swift trampling feet.
Every one was scrambling up from his
desk, when Robert Balm jumped out into
the aisle and cried:
keep your seats. There's no danger if
you stay where you are"
Those words stopped the rush like magic
Seeing Balm S GOODNESS and courage all the
others were ashamed to show themselves
towards. 1t was not SO much the words he
uttered as his manner in saying them that
swayed the crowd. His tone not only
showed that he was not frightened, but
the order rang out sharply and confidently
as If the boy knew he would be obeyed.
nat Woulo nave happened II young
Balm had not spoken at the right moment?
Very likely the children would have rushed
out, like Miss Carlen's pupils, before they
could be checked. A steep stairway lay
before them and probably many of them
would have been badly hurt, if not killed,
in the wild downward fight.
Robert Balm is fourth sergeant in one of
the two cadet companies Of the Marion
Public School. He was very happy, but
also full of bluSheS when Mr. In Rio tho
principal of the school, complimented him
before all his friends. If every boy who
reads of his brave act will make up his
mind to keep cool in any panic near him
he will have paid the best possible compli-
ment to Robert Balm.