The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1898-12-27
w as Enacted
in Clinton.
A DARING WOMAN
Is Nellie Russell, Who Does
q Perilous Act.

Clinton. Dee. a6.-Several hundred
people saw Mile Russell GO the slide
for life" this afternoon, which is more
like a slide to death. and viii be a slide
to death for her some day. as Miss
Russell believes.
This desperate undertaking is not
new to the people OF this town. They
saw Miss Russell 10 the same thing in
the fall, when hanging by her neck
from a loop attached to a pulley, she
slid like lightning down a rope tied
to pole, far above the top Of the
grandstand, TO the ground. She did the
same thing this afternoon, only the
high end of the rome was attached to a
window Of the theatre building, some
30 feet from the ground, while the rope
ran above the telegraph wires, across
High street far back into the Morse
dooryard on the other side of the
street.
The interest in this feat was two
fold. Everybody IN Clinton, o. nearly
everybody, had read in The Spy about
the fate that overlook Miss Russell in
Dover, Del. The rope was fastened
hundred and ten feet in the air. Tt
stretched for 500 feet across the Dover
fair grounds. The afternoon perform
ance had passed Off successfully and
uneventfully. Miss Russell essayed to
repeat the performance in the evening
In order that the immense crowd on
the grounds might distinguish her
progress down the incline, she carried
a red lantern
Six stalwart men, holding three
pads stood, at varying distances
apart, at the foot Of the incline. Miss
Russell put her neck through the loop
and started. Every fraction of a sec
7ond her speed quadrupled, according to
the rule governing descents on inclines
Of known angles. Two burly negroes
held the first pad. AS they saw Miss
Russell descending toward them. the
lantern in her hand glowing like a
fierce red eye, they became fright
ened and abandoned their posts. The
two remaining pads We're not enough
The sliding woman went through them
as if they had been the tissue covered
hoops that a circus rider jumps
through, and was stopped in her des-
cent by the wooden legs of the jack,
across which the rope was stretched.
She was picked up insensible. Every
body thought she was dead. But she
was not Nothing was broken but two
Of her ribs and her collar bone. This
was fourteen weeks ago and today was
in the same way again
Today's slide was not 50 thrilling as
some others, in fact, not as thrilling
as many others that Miss Russell has
performed. No place could be found
from which to stretch the rope, that
was high enough to suit Miss Russell.
But the thing was thrilling enough to
suit the average quiet citizen of this
town.
Miss Russell is the only living wo-
man who does the slide for life. The
same interest attaches to her that
would attach 10 any person who daily
should go forth upon an errand of
which death might be a result reason
ably to be expected.
The Clinton correspondent Of The Spv
interviewed Miss Russell
Yes" said that lady, Il am "a years
old, and for IA years | have been doing
the slide for life. | learned how Of
Mile. Mile Zoe. She used to do it,
hanging by her teeth. She was killed
while doing it in Baltimore, two
years ago. A rivet wore away
and broke, her teeth could not
keep their hold in the mouth pad, and
she dropped so feet or more. When
they picked her up, she was dead.
i did the slide. hanging by my teeth
for some time. I began to do it in the
more difficult way, hanging by my neck
quite by accident. used to be hauled
UP TO the top Of the slide, clinging to
a small tTapeze. When + reached the
top, / would let go of the trapeze, take
the mouth harness between my teeth
and let go. This wasn't hard to do.
Nothing could happen to me, unless my
teeth broke or the harness broke, if the
people at the bottom did their duty
properly.
But one day as 1 was being hauled
up, the trapeze caught and wouldn't go
further. 1 couldn't get hold of the
mouth harness, and I was stuck An
idea struck me- A piece of rope was
attached to the trapeze. a short piece
] made a loop of it, fastened the loop
TO the pulley upon which the trapeze