New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-05-29
JUMPED FROM THE BRIDGE.
KRETZ SAID HE WANTED TO PROVE
THE FORCE OF WILL POWER.
DECLARED THAT BY ITS EXERCISE ONE COULD
DO ALMOST ANYTHING WITHOUT IN
JURY-HE WAS NOT HURT.

JURY-HE WAS NOT HURT.
Howard Kretz. who says he is an art student.
studying at the Academy of Design. and is twen-
ty-two years old, jumped from the Brooklyn
Bridge about $50 o'clock yesterday afternoon.
and after landing feet first ih the river emerged
from the water. only to sink again and then bob
up a second time and strike out for the shore.
He was rescued by the crew Of the freight
steamer Vulcan OF the Norwalk Line, and taken
to Pier No. % East River. off Dover-st. He was
taken to Hudson Street Hospital, after being
placed under arrest by Policeman Hart. of the
Oak-st station, and the surgeons say he is only
suffering from shock, and that no bones were
broken.
Though Kretz had evidently made UP hts
mind to see II he could successfully jump from
the Bridge, he at first refused TO say so, but to
the policeman who arrested him he finally ad-
mitted that he had done to demonstrate that
a man. by exercising will power, could do any
thing that was possible without being injured.
1t was about the hour named when Kretz was
on Greene and Gates ave. tfolley-car crossing
the Bridge from Manhattan. When the car.
which was an open one, was about two hundred
feet from the centre of the structure on the New
York side he leaped from 1t and quick as a
flash. vaulted over the railing. Bridge Police
man James Gaffney was on the roadway q short
distance away and saw the man, but he had no
chance to intercept him before he made the leap.
Many others on the and on the promenade
also saw the act and stopped to peer over %
through the network to see the fate Of Kretz
The Vulcan was coming down stream In charge
OF Captain Boutol, and was within two hundred
feet OF the man. but the first on the boat to see
Kretz was Daniel Ryan, a deckhand, who saw
the man vault over the railing. de SAID last
evening that he held his breath and was unable
to speak until KretZ struck the water Ihen
he shouted to the captain. who steered In the
direction OF Kretz who had by this time struck
out for the New-York shore.
The captain soon overlook him, and himselr
threw line to the man In the water, VINO
grasped It, John Donnelly and Eugene Brother
ton two other deckhands pulled kretz on deck
The Vulcan was soon at her destination, ana
Just as Kretz jumped TO the pier Policeman Hart
took him into custody. After much questioning
Kretz told the policeman that he had been read
ing book on Theosophy, and that he wanted
to prove that a man, by exercising his VIII
power. could do any possible thing without IN
Jury to himself"
But there is one thing you cannot do" SAID
Kretz "and that is, jump into a. fire without De-
ing burned"
An ambulance had been called, and when 1t ar
rived Surgeon Bay after examining the man,
said that he could find no injury, but would take
him to the hospital. as be was suffering from
ahocx and he was taken there prisoner on the
charge OF attempted suicide. krez gave NO.
147 West One-hundred- and third-st as his
home saying that he lived there with his
mother and begged the policeman not to tell her
what he had done.