Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1901-04-19
CLIMBING TRINITY sPlRE.
Famous steeDIe Climber who FOun,
Amunrr,lenf In IIfa NVnrl-

H@AnO4A 9AEENAE GAAAlAUGE W NO EOMMM
Amusement In His Work.
According to Cleveland Moffet in st.
Nicholas. Robert Merrill. alias "Steeple
Bob" makes light of climbing to the top
of Trinity spire.
Merrill laughed about the climb up old
Trinity; the first climb, when he carried
up the hauling rope and worked his way
clear to the cross. with nothing to help
him hut the lands al! feet he was born
with, and did il cooily. while men on the
street below turned away sickened with
fear for HIM
I'm telling You the truth" said "Stee-
pie Bob" when l say it was an easy
climb; any fairly active man could do it
if he'd forget the height I'm not talking
about all steeples; some are hard and
dangerous, but the one on Trinity, in
spite of its three hundred odd feet, has
knobs of stone for ornament all the way
up they call them corbelsl. and all you
have to do is to step from one to another"
''How much Of a step?'
ooh. when | stood On one the next one
came to my breast. and then could just
touch the one above that"
He called this easy climbing!
''The only tic;lish bit was just at the
top. where two great stones, weighing
about a ton apiece, swell out like an ap
pie ON a stick. and ! had to crawl around
and over that apple. which was four feet
or so across. If it hadn't been for groove:
and scrollwOrk in the stone. | couldn't
have done it. and even as it was had
two or three minutes Of hard wrigglina
after kicked off with my feet and began
pulling myself up"
You mean you hung by your hands
from this big ball Of stoneT'
Il hung mostly by my fingers: the
scrolls weren't deep enough for my hand.
to go in"
sand you drew yourself slowly up ant
around and over the ball?"
Certainly; that was the only way
sand it was at the very top?"
"Yes, just under the cross. It WASH
much, though You could do it yourself
| really think Mr.. Merrill believed this
/ He honestly saw no particular danger il
/ that climb. nor could / discover that b.
ever saw any particular danger in any
thing he had done. He always made tn
point that if he had really thought tn
thing dangerous he wouldn't have don
it. And ! conclude from this that beinI
a steeple climber depends quite as mucl
upon how a man thinks as upon what b
can do.
"A funny thing happened" he added
After | got over this hard place. | Sill
into V shaped space between the bula
ing stone and the steeple shaft, and / Ia
there on my back for a minute or sc
resting. But when l started to raise my
self / found my weight had worked m
down in the crotch and jammed me fast
and it was quite a bit Of time before
could get free"
"How much time? A minute?"
YES. FIVE minutes. and it seemed
good deal longer
Five minutes struggling in a sort q
stone trap; five minutes stretched OF
helpless at the very top Of steepI
where one false move wouid mean d.
struction-that is what Merrill spoke {
as a funny thing. Thanks. l thought,
will take my fun some other way, al
lower down.
'You would be surprised" he went o.
ito feel the movement Of a steeple.
trembles all the time and answers evel
jar on the street below. / guess old Tri
ity's steeple sways Is inches every tin
! an elevated train passes. And st. Paul
is even worse. Why. she rocks like
beautifully balanced cradle; it won
mako come people seasick. Perhaps "
dent know it. but the better a steeple
built the more she sways. You want
look out for the ones that stand rigi
there's something wrong with them; mo
likely they're out of plumb.