The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-30
(. [. D0wner Describes the Sensations of His
 Terrible Fall.

How does 1t feel to fall a sheer drop of ninety feet? What are a mans sem sations while he, is in the air falling
 After he realizes that he is falling he has no sensation whatever. He feels like he has dropped out from un- der his breath and he loses conseious.- esa. He does not feel in the slightest any jar or shock when he strikes the earth; He never feels a twtnge of pain unti,
 That is the way c. l.. Downer feit when he fell from the cornice of the New Exchange Hotel to a scamoid SIX feet above the sidewalk: Tn ms way of his fall He is one of the very few men in all the world who eyer had sucn a terrible experience and lived to tell the tale. MT. Downer is the remark- able young man who dropped through the air for ninety feet and never had bone broken. He sustained several cuts and flesh wounds put none oi ms ms covering from these injuries at local infirmary. Mir. Downer will today be so far recovered from this awful fall turn today to his boarding house.
 In his bed at the infrmary yester- day he recounted the wondeerful expe- rience he had. an experience that put
 The scaffold Collapsed.
 Mir. Downer, who Is timer, was engaged in tacking some galvanized lions heads upon the cornice of the New Exchange, when the scaffold upon which he was standing collapsed with out a moments warning. Downer had but a moment to call out to a fellow workman when he shot through the air to the earth far below.
 In his fall he clung to a heavy plank and the two came down together. At the third story Downer struck a gal vanized iron cornice and crushed it like it was made of pasteboard. He dropped then upon a scaffold close to the side walk. The plank which had come down with him struck the wooden awning of a neighboring building, cut eleanly through 1t and smashed to smithereens the glass and woodwork of large show window in the store underneath.
 For a moment after his terrible fall Downer lay upon the scaffold as if he was dead, but when the willing. and were raised to help him he was con scious and able to talk. At the in- firmary where he was carried It was found that he sustained two perpendic- : ular cuts in the forehead, one over each eye, each being about an inch long. He had dislocated the knuckle. of finger on his left hand and received gash hurt, however, was in his left side, where some nails had struck and cut through, bruising the ribs.
 CT after falling seven stories or ninety feet. Downer has rare opportunity of contributing personal information upon that much discussed question as to place Is painful, or otherwise. It has been a ftful subject for writers, the sensations of a man when he finds him self shooting downward through the air.
 Downer lying in his cot in the in- firmary yesterday afternoon was by no means loath to talk. of his rare expe- rience, but he said that he had practi- cally no experiences to describe. He looked well and strong The pink scars on his forehead and the left hand ward evidences of his fall from the New Exchange as he talked about how he felt when he was taking the fall
 Look Out, I'm Gone.
 "It was this way" Downer went on to tell Irwin, a fellow workman, had been out there with me on the same scaffolding. We were putting the lions heads on the cornice, and Irwin thought top the roof. He had been gone per haps half an hour when t-4s accident
 What preceded the fall, recall very wildly had stopped to pick up a tool on the scaffold. As l was half way up from the stopping posture, the scaffold gave way under me It hap even grasp for the window. I called out to Irwin above me on the roof, Look out, Red, I'm gone. He tells me
 
 him was one of the last conscious things 1 did
 T remember that my mind worked automatically, seeking some way by which 1 might be saved. l reached out and clutched a blink that had been a part of the scaffold. I remember noth- Ing else until I came to consciousness 90 feet below, suffering the keenest pain from the hurt in my side.
 T know I lost consciousness before had gone ten feet. It seemed to me that the breath left my body at the start I felt as If I had dropped out from under my breath. I never had a moment of fear l never had time to think that l was in a horrible fix.
 T have heard that some people. in falling, said they had the delightful feeling of flight and freedom. I never experienced that. I never felt anything during the fall. I don't believe that the faculties of my brain were working, nor did I experience anything that showed that my nerves were doing their usual duty.
 No Nightmare Feeling.
 You have probably had a nightmare, in which you were dropping rom a high building or out of a balloon. It was a horrible experience in the dream, as you felt yourself sinking. A terri ble fear had hold of you. Well, you don't get any of that in the real thing. From first to last never had a moment of fear, not d second of anxiety. Au. tomatically, tried to save myself and at the very moment I realized that l