Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1901-03-04
BRoDIE's LIFE Is DONE.
Bowery Character Expires in San An
tonic, Tex.

Bowery Character Expires in San An
tonic, Tex.
Steve BrOdie, oldest and most
amusing of New York characters, &C
tor, bridge-jumper, saloonman, and
philanthropist, is dead. He passed
away at San Antonio, Tex, few days
ago after short life which had in it
more excitement and all-round come
dy than is the fate of 10 average in
dividuals.
Brodie was regarded as typical
Bowery boy and tough citizen At
the same time, he had not an enemy
in the world, was never guilty of the
slightest offense against law and or
der, and did more actual good in the
world than most alleged Samaritans.
His heart was as large as that of an
OK, quick to respond to the cry of
need, and governed by as shrewd d
head as ever rested on a pair of Bow
cry shoulders. The poor of the east
side will miss Steve Brodie-will miss
him more than the sporting world,
which had begun to forget the bridge
jumper and turn to newer idols.
Steve was about 38 years old, and
had been prominent in the sporting
field since 1879. A small, stocky,
powerfully-built parsonage, with a
keen, foxy, but good-humored face, he
came from Buffalo to the metropolis,
and broke into fame as professional
pedestrian. For a few years after, he
ranged the Bowery, running a boot
backing stand and directing a street
car. He had various adventures, none
harmful to anybody, and his doings
began to amuse newspaper men and
Bowery citizens. In 1885, an epidem-
ic of bridge-jumping swept the coun-
try Men hoped off viaducts every
where, and were usually buried later.
Brodie figured that the Brooklyn
bridge would give great advertise
ment to the successful jumper-or the
man who could feign the jump. Thus
it came to pass that a dummy was
flung from the bridge into the East
river, while Steve swan around in the
wet below The papers took Steve
Steve actually did jump from a
couple of bridges 1ater-little bridges
where his skin was safe. He started
saloon, down at the lower end of the
Bowery, and really a couple of blocks
out of the actual swim of that great
thoroughfare Trade was good, and
Steve made himself extremely popu-
lar by his courtesy to parties Of
strangers Soon visit to BrOdie's
saloon was as much the regular thing
as trip to the stock yards to people
entering Chicago. Steve kept on adj
vertising himself, and finally went on
the stage in a melodrama where the
villain was killed nine times and
Steve jumped into a tank of real Wa
Nter AS time went y, the sporting fra
ternity began to drop away from
Steve-began to desert the whole
Bowery and center up town. Brodie
did not follow the rush. His health
had begun to fail, he was not strong
enough to perform any more daring
deeds-even fake jumps into the wat
Grand he had to stay at home. He
had plenty of money, and bought prop
erty in New York, Long Island, and
Buffalo. Meanwhile he developed Il
charitable streak that showed the true
gold in the nature of the man.
Brodie advertised some of his char
tiles in a wide and amusing way.
Those that did the most practical
good, however, he smothered. Hun
dreds of hoboes and men who were
starving in the great city were fed by
Brodie, whose purse was open and
whose generosity never slackened. At
last, feeling that his health had brok-
en-, he went to San Antonio-and died.
The dark little saloon at the south
end of the Bowery, with the picture OF
John L. Sullivan in the right hand
window, will be draped in black today,
and thousands of poor people in lower
New York will mourn sincerely.
Steve Brodie was sport, and a buf
foon who added to the gayety of ma
lions, but he spent what he won, an
his dollars did the world some good.