The Globe-republican. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1889-1910, 1900-05-03

I NV
destruction. The fence posts were
old, and some of them rotten Though
Johnson twitched and jerked to loose
himself, freedom would have been the
freedom OF death. and the wire and
the post next to his foot held securely
1t was agonizing to hang there, but 1t
was not death Still, flesh and blood
could not have held out much longer,
and discovery and the difficult rescue
came not a minute too Soou-
Below the cliff were quarries, skirted
on the outer edge by the Iron Noun
tain Railroad. Beyond the tracks
rushes the swollen Mississippi. john
son, who can remember little of how
he got into his plight had been out
in the country a day or two before.
looking for work. Not finding it, he
used up his small store of money in
rum, and then started to walk back to
the city. He had been sick and early
in the evening he lay down in the rain
upon pile of boards near house that
stands on the top of the bluff. Finally
he got up, and lurched along, uncon-
scious of the yawning chasm only
few rods away. Suddenly his foot
caught in a barbed wire that ran close
to the ground. and he was flung head
long. 1t happened to be loop that
tripped him, and he fell over the edge;
the wire twisted his body around SO
that his back was against the cliff.
The wire frightened about his ankle
and then sagged- The shock of the
| fall sobered him partly, and he twisted
and turned to get loose His finger
| tips could just touch a ledge of rock.
| but he could grasp nothing, though he
could relieve the weight of his body
somewhat He could not see in the
murky night, burt below he. could hear
| the swishing of the river
| The granite cutters in the quarry
1 49,
| ing and a little before that hour Her
| man Spieckerman the first OF the
| force, entered the quarry and went to
| a shed to put on his working clothes
| He happened to look up, and could
| hardly believe his eyes when he saw
| a man hanging head down from the
| face of the cliff away above. He ran
| to the office OF the boss and GREATNESS
| Iy told the men there what he had
| seen. They telephoned to the fire de
| partment for a hook and ladder truck
| and to a hospital for an am bulance. II
the meantime gang of workmen hu1-
ried to the spot and stretched a tar
pau1in under the swinging form, 81
that if the man should drop he Nigh
not be dashed to death on the jagged
rocks. Other men bounded up a roa'
| that led to the top of the cliff Lyini
| face down on the edge and perrin,
over they could see the swaying be 3y
| held in the loop OF wire. None Of then
dared try to pull up the man by thi
wire, for fear that it would slip OF
the foot. In the meantime the fire
men and the ambulance had come int
| the quarry and with them a crowd o
| men from the city. Advice was plenty
| but deeds were few The fremen tool
| out their longest ladder and carrie
it from ledge to ledge up the eli:
until the top round was within reac
Of Johnson He gripped it with des
r.eration though his bIeod-swol1e
hands had little life in them fire
man mounting the ladder fastened t
| the negross legs a rope that had bee
lowered from the top OF the cliff, an
slowly and carefully Johnson wa
| pulled up
The head was distorted to abnorms
| size by the tremendous pressure
| blood; the pupils of the eyes were df:
/ | tended and hecked with angry, re
= | spots; the lips were puned to unusu;
: | proportions and the cords of the nee
were knotted and hardened. The arm
/ | and hands were swollen to grotesQt
hugeness. The lungs were contractf
so that not word came from Il
parched throat The vital organs al
- lower limbs were cold with the cree
= ing death dew
The man was chafed by rough hand
: | but the reactionary movement of &
blood current was SO swift after t
| body was placed in normal poSiti'
| that this remedy was unnecessary
!. surged from the flooded head back In
the lower extremities, and, releas
from the thraIl of suffocation, the M