The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1907-04-01
Herbert Remington Has Both
Legs Broken.
CROWD SEES ACCIDENT
Painter Falls One Hundred
Feet to Sidewalk. ~.
Steeple Climber Painting Huber
Flag Pole When 1t Breaks
Injured Man Will Recover.
EE

| iGeciN.-.nG
To fall headlong from the. top
of the flagpole which surmounts
the Huber building to the pave
ment of Prospect street, more
than 100 feet below, and to live
to tell the story of his awful des-
cent, has been the experience OF
Herbert Remington, aged thirty
years, of Brooklyn, New York,
known throughout the country by
the sobriquet of "iSteeple Jack y
Remington had both legs broken
and was badly bruised and cut
about the body, but will recover.
He is now under the care of
physicians at the Central Emer-
gency hospital.
The accident happened about 10
o'clock this morning while Rem
ington was at work painting the
flagpole. Several hundred people
who had assembled on the streets
below to watch the famous steeple-
climber at work, saw his body
whirl through space.
The fact t.iat Remington struck
first in the telephone wires above
Prospect street, and then dropped
from there to the pavement, is
all that prevented his body from
being crushed into lifeless mass.
That he WIS not cut in pieces by
/ falling into the wires is miracu-
lous.
In telling of his experience at
the hospital, Remington said that
as nearly as he can remember,
his body struck lengthwise among
the wires. to that the resistance
was not sufficiently great to crush
him. Had he fallen crosswise, there
is no doubt but that the shock
would have brought instant death.
Remington had reached the top
Of the pole when the accident oc-
Cured, AS he neared the ball
which sumounts the apex, the pole
began to bend toward the east and
even then the hundreds of people
witnessing the feat of the daring
man turned clammy at the mere
thought Of seeing him hurled to
the street. Unnerved by the sway
ing of the pole and the sensation
OF being waited about far above
the ground, sensation which he
had felt many times before, Rem
ington calmly stopped painting for
moment and waved gayly at the
people below. So thoroughly over
come by fear were the spectators
that not one was able to raise his
hand to answer the salue of the
dauntless man on the pole.
A moment later the weight of
Remington's body caused the pole
to break few feet from the ball
at place where it was later learn
ed the wood had become rotten.
For only few seconds the paint
er's body was suspended in mid
air, his feet, interlocked about the
pole, preventing al instantaneous
descent. Then this uncertain hold
was broken and he shot down.
ward. just as he started to fall,
he emitted a piercing shrek, cry
that came almost simultaneously
with breathless murmur of ter
ror from the people on the street.
1t was almost minute after
Remington had struck the pave
ment on the east side of Prospect
street that men III the crowd Of
spectators recovered from their
feeling Of horror sufficiently to
rush to his side. They found him
unconscious and bleeding, but
breathing freely. The ambulance
OF G.. F.. Hess arrived within a
few minutes and the injured man
was hurried to the hospital, where
hasty examination revealed the
fact that aside from having both
legs broken, he was not seriously
injured.
or all the people who witnessed
the accident, none is able to give
the details as clearly as the man
himself.
Several in the crowd tainted
either at the time Of the accident
or afterward, while other men
were so thoroughly overcome with,
horror that they sickened ANA ran
from the scene. 'sS Z ~ Y &
"No, ! had no premoiit;ofss that
such thing would happen" said
Remington, when seen at the hos.
phal' 81 was so accustomed
through past experience to giving
no thought to possible accidents
that even when the pole began to
crack | thought there was no dan.
GER"
"All the time that was falling
] retained consciousness and when
my face happened to turn down
ward / could easily make out OBJ
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