The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-02-13
HI RISE AND FALL OF MURPHY.
A Swiftly Rowing Pnntomime whereof the
Characters Were an 1rishman and q Bnrrel.

A Swiftly l1ovinE Pantomime whereof the
Characters Were an Irishman and n barrel.
Fror the Chicago Record.
This is the story Of Murphy's travels. Muir.
ply did not travel for a great length of time,
but he moved rapidly while he was at it, and he
met with a variety Of Incidents equal to any
related by Marco Polo or Bayard Taylor.
The true story of Murphy's travels is told by
the employee of a prominent accident liability
insurance company. whose duty it was to adj
just claims.
recting him to call at an unfinished building
in the downtown region and investigate. an ac-
against the company. He went to the building
and made Inquiries, Ar AND the facts: as nearly as
ne Il t9 seem ssf i tSaI MURPHY Nun De hs and eian seSm 1fris5j
and a third man named ,Schmelz mot Irish
had been put to work to clear the rubbish and
debris from the top foors.of the building. They
did not wish to carry ii, down Ave or six floors,
SO in a spirit Of ingenuity they rugged q block
prepared to lower the rubbish down in barrels.
Tho pulley was fastened to a crosshead beam
DOWN &C. the ,h 1SP Gt the see sh shaft 10 t the fhs f fidcr. t where
His duty was to let out the rope and lower
the barrel. He gave the rope q couple of turns
without any trouble. He emptied it and sent
and brought down barrel No. 9 with great
success.
AFTER the second empty barrel. had gone up
Murphy was standing in the shaft holding to the
rope and waiting for the signal. At the top of the
shaft Schmelz and Clancy. satisfied that the
system was in working order and that no fur
rope to the loaded barrel. which was pushed off
into the shaft. II was a heavy load. consisting
mostly OF brick dust and agmen of plaster
Ing. 1t started down the shaft very rapidly.
started up the shaft at the same time. He
started SO suddenly that he had no time to
think OF letting go OF the rope or giving it a
turn around the pipe.
The barrel gained speed and so did Murphy.
Half way, up the shat! they passed each other.
Just US Murphy reached the top Of the shaft
cement floor at the bottom of the elevator shaft:
The force Of the blow drove the bottom out Of
the barrel, releasing the loose contents.
he began to descend from the top of the shaft
and descend in a hurry at that, while the shell
of the barrel started, upward. This time Muir.
.Itruck him from underneath. He Kicked madiy
and disentangled himself and finished his de-
scent at a speed which would have dcfed in
Simultaneous photosraphy. He came down In a
shavings. and brick. At the same moment the
barrel iamr ed into the top Of the shaft ana was
further shattered, although still held together
Murphy was so terribly Jared that he let go
OF the rope. The rope being free; the wrecked
barrel descended Of its own weight and buried
Schmelz and Clancy came running from the
top OF the building and dug him out. He was in
a daaed condition and had only a cloudy .recol-
lection OF what had happened. In addition 70
three welts on the head he had received n Jolt"
in the back and bitten the end of his tongue.
They took him to the hospital. where he re-
manned for several days, irving to piece toReth;,
err the confused impressions of his trip. He did
not blame Clancy and SchmelH, but he did say
that they ought to have reached out and pulled
him in just as he arrived at the top of the shaft.