The St. Louis Republic., 1904-06-26
Philip Krantz "Just Thought" He
Could Make Hazardous
Jump and He Did.
LEFT HOSPITAL RECENTLY.
Despondent Over Inability TO Re-
tain Position as Engineer, He
Went Out for a Walk and
Plunged Into River.

REPUBLIC SPECIAL
New York, June 25.-suffering merely
from shock and ruptured tynpanum.
Philip Krantz, 30 years old, an engineer, is
q prisoner IN the Hudson Street Hospital,
charged with attempted suicide, having
dropped from the Brooklyn Bridge in the
afternoon.
When asked why he had done so he
calmly told the men who pulled him out
Of the river that he just happened TO think
he could make the leap in safety and he
tried 1t.
Thereupon the police set down the man
as a daredevil, but there is good reason
TO believe that he is aiIing mentally and
really did not realize what he was doing
at the time. He had been patient in the
New York Hospital for weeks. his wife
payin so a week rent out of their little
savings for medical attendance.
Three months. ago he was discharged
from the hospital with the information
that he was suffering from an incurable
ailment. He and his wife moved from the
apartments where they had been living. at
No. Morton street. 10 cheaper quarters
at No 1856 West Tenth street He has not
been able to get any position owing to
his eyes troubling him, and he complained
j
RESPONDENT OVER HIS TROUBLES.
FOR more than a dozen years he had
bekn the engineer of a big Office building
IN NBroadway near Houston street His
fseh and limbs began to trouble him and
thenl he complained of pains in his head
and had to give UP his place last winter.
Recently he has been rather respondent
because of his irability to earn any money.
and he, has brooded over the loss Of two
children who died not long ago. He and
his wife were reserved and did not mix
Sss @ the sf TthgT 5e IN he sns be
OF them and say he was the last man in
the world to do any foolhardy feat
Yesterday afternoon he left the house,
haps be able to hear of some position that
he could fill. The next his wife heard from
him was when she and her mother re-
turned from walk and were informed
that he was a prisoner at the hospital.
About 5 O'Clock Henry James, who is
q mans body shoot down from the Brook
lyn bridge near the highest part of the
span like plummet, strike the water and
disappear.
ROSE AND SWAN VIGOROUSLY.
To his astonishment the man rose to the
surface and began to swim sturdiIy to-
ward the Manhattan shore. James ran to
the Oak street station and told the police
to call an ambulance. One arrived from
pulled Krantz from the water.
To the ambulance surgeon he gave his
name. age and address, and said he was
married Acting Captain Fennelly of the
Oak street station, who had run to the
pier also, said to the man: Whatever did
you do that for?"
Krantz smiled in a half-puzzled way and
then said slowly: why, just wanted to
see IL I could do 1t, and / did. didn't I?''
He had a gold watch and few dollars
in his pockets, and when his clothes were
removed the surgeons declared that they
could ind no visible evidence of any in
jurfes except that the drum Of his left
ear had been ruptured and he was suffer-
ing from the shock OF his plunge into the
water from a height of 135 feet.