The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-19
Ran Away and Tore Up the
 Country Side
5IAlRS WERE NOT STRONG
The Giant Tied Kite String to Them While He Went After "Smoke" and the Result Was
 Surprising.

There wasn't anything childish or fool- lsh about the great giant said the olo circus man to a correspondent of the New York Sun. He was a man, like you ana me, but he did have a boy streak In him that stayed in him all his life, same as it does in all good men, and kept him young and fresh.
 Now, I don't mind saying, about my self, that I haven't forgotten the run used to have flying kites. l don't mean to say that I'd go to making Kites anu flying 'em now in my old age, but II come oss a lot of boys flying kites like to get ahold of the string of one for a minute and feel the tug of it-it brings back a touch of youth to me; and the giant was just like that.
 "one spring when we were waiting In winter quarters for the weather to settle a little more, before taking the road Tor the summer, the giant saw some boys out flying kites he had q mild attack or Kite fever and he thought he'd build kite and fly 1t himself.
 Naturally the giant built kite that was proportioned to his own size, Just as you or l would do, or any boy, II We were going to build kite and that made ,he giants 8 kite about twelve feet high, which if you'll stop to think about 1t minute is good deal of kite, and one that an ordinary man couldn't begin to hold at all But it was all right for the giant.
 < He had for a kite string a number or good stout new clothes lines tied together end to end, and for a tail he had lot or old horse blankets torn into thick strips and knotted together, with long roll of Ia hot tha nld him sandwiched in to lengthen 1t out, and he had great fun flying the big kite-for one day, and then something happened
 ''There was standing at that time out side of a two story brick building that we had on the grounds there at our winter quarters, a building that we used for storage, weatherbeaten stairway that reached from the ground to the second story. This location saved the space that the stairway would have taken up inside the building, and 1t was Just as good better, in fact, for the use we put it to, outside; we could haul wagons right alongside of 1t outside and tote the stuff right up 1t to the second story.
 Well, on the second morning that the giant had the big kite out the wind being as it was, he was flying it from around by that storehouse building and on the stair way side. And wanting to smoke and finding that he was out of matches, he just tied the kite string around the outer sdepiece of that stairway going up the side of the building while he went and got some. And what with the tremendous pulling power of the kite and the fact, suppose, that some of the spikes had rot ted off or worked loose in the mortar tho kite pulled the old stairway away from the building and started off with it.
 Tt brought up first dragging more or less on the ground, against the board fence running around our property, and for a minute we thought that was going to hold 1t: but a gust of wind struck the big kite just at that minute, and smashi went three panels of the fence into kind ling wood and spnters and the kite was off, dragging the stairway after 1t across the country, with the whole circus now humping after it, with the giant in the lead.
 He had tied the line about half way up on the stairway, where it was handy for him to reach it, and so the stairway was now about evenly balanced on the string. Our next door neighbor on that side was farmer who had four stacks of hay in field just the other side of that fence, and the stairway just caught each of those haystacks right at the base and picked up and shook out and scattered the whole lote of em, one after another, all over creation. And at the next jump it made it broke the hayowners arm and tore the roof off his woodshed.
 Tt bounced along the field after tear ing up the haystacks and happened to be on an upward bounce when 1t struck the woodshed and caught under the caves. The farmer had come out along with everybody else when the kite started, .nd he rushed up and grabbed the stairs and tried to hold them, but puff of wind on the kite pinned his arm between the stairs and the shed, and the next instant away went the TOOL leaving nothing of it but sticks and shingles, and away went the stairs, tearing up fields beyond and tearing down fences on the way until it came to road. where something really extraordinary happened.
 This road ran east and west, and there was coming along il at the time a horse and wagon, headed east The stairway bounded clear over the last fence by this road without touching that, but. as it sailed over one end of 1t hit this wagon smashing blow and turned the whole outfit-horse. wagon and all-clean around in the road. so that the horse headed |