Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1907-06-22

I
ton, half starved, almost dead from ex-
posurc at midday on Broadway, in New
York city.
With tens of thousands of persons
within hearing of his voice, and with
men working within ten feet Of where
he stood or sat, Lammert was for fifty
hours as isolated rs if he stood on some
ledge in the Himalayas Nobody heard
him or paid any attention to him.
Thousands saw him and went their way
without taking second look. His cries
for help brought only grins. And only
by chance he finally was saved from
death by starvation or from fall on the
pavement, hundred feet below him.
That such thing could happen seems
impossible it did. Nor was it the
heartlessness of New Workers that made
the crowds pass unconcerned under man
who was facing terrible death.
The story is one that for strangeness
excels anything ever dreamed by writer
of fiction. Lammert is employed in the
auditing department of one of the i'm
mense skyscrapers near the city hall in
New York The busiest street in Amer
lea runs along one side of the E,Ii'1ing,
and ON the other side the ceaseless ebb
and flow of money crazed men goes on.
Nearby the spire of Trinity church rises,
and Just around the corner is the mael-
strom of money and madness that is
called the stock exchange.
The auditing department is on the
tenth floor of the building, and Lammert,
from his desk. could look down upon the
struggling, seething masses of men dur
ing the stock exchange hours, and per
haps dream that the figures he was add
ing .were dollars and that he was gam
bling with them in the market below
He was at work checking up an intri-
cate table at TO o'clock in the morning.
The day had been unseasonably hot for
the spring and the windows were thrown
open for the first time. There were per
haps fifty men and girls at work in the
department, but they practically were
isolated from each other by partitions,
desks, cabinets and files No one was
paying any attention to Lammert He
was near the completion of his inspec-
ton of the table when gust of wind
suddenly swept the paper on which he
had been verifying the results and test
ing them according to the office rules
and blew it out of the window.
Lammert made grab for the precious
paper, which represented perhaps two
hours work, but it eluded him and hut
tered over the sill. The wind caught it.
lifted it as in a chimney, higher and
higher, and then n current of air drove
it downward and it fell easily on a ledge
only few feet from the window, where
it remained.
No one else saw this. Being young and
light, Lammert decided at once that he
would crawl out and get the paper The
ledge ran for eight feet straight along
the wall, then there was projection
perhaps eighteen inches, around which
Lammert supposed, was another window.
The ledge was of stone and about ten
inches wide, and although over 100 feet
from the ground, Lammert thought he
could get the paper without trouble
Instead of calling one of the other
men to his assistance. he took the win
dow pole used for opening and shutting
the heavy windows, and reached for the
paper, leaning out of the window and
trying to draw it towards him. After
several attempts he succeeded in poking
it into the angle made by the projection
eight feet away. In his anxiety to re-
cover the paper he forgot caution and.
hooking the window pole onto the ledge
of the floor above. he tested it to see if
it would bear weight, and then started
to walk along the ledge, steadying him
self with the window pole hooked onto
the upper ledge.
1t was foolhardy attempt, but he
got along well until he came TO the cor
ner and had to stoop down to get the
paper. To do this he was forced to
kneel on the ledge, letting go his hold on
the pole, which swung back perhaps a
foot when he released it and hung there.
Triumphant over recovering the paper
Iammcrt started to stand up-and dis
covered. to his horror. that any move
ment towards Strengthening up would
overbalance him and throw him down
into the street. Also he realized that the
pole which had insured his balance was
behind him. If he could get hold of
that he could straighten up in safety
He tried reaching upward with his left
hand, but could not reach
For ten minutes, he says he knelt there
On the ledge dizzy with fright. and was
forced TO shut his eyes and hang on with
both hands TO the ledge to overcome his
desire to throw himself into the street.
Finally. made cooler by the desperate
nature of his position, he began to think
lie remembered that there was
another window just beyond the
ledge He could crawl forwards, even
if he did not dare go back along
the ledge Tie steadted himself across
tho angle of the lodges and felt around
the projection. To his delight it was
only about foot WIDE and OF the
other side he found handhold-a small
iron pipe
His hand chnched around the pipe gave
him renewed courage, and. although drip
ping wet from the nervous horror of the
situation, he chung to it while with in
finite effort and caution he edged his
way. inch by inch. out until he stood on
the ledge a foot wide, sheer over the
street. With a sudden movement he cot