The evening world. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1887-1931, 1909-01-02
Pretty Wife's Practica. Joke
Ends in Five-Story Plunge
to Cellar.
PINNED IN THE SHAFT.
Mrs. Whelton May Die of In
juries, Though Child Is
Unhurt.

With the idea OF playing q practical
joke on her husband, Mrs. Rose WHEEL
ton, good-lookIng young woman,
climbed into the dumbwaiter In her fiat
on the top floor OF the tenement at Nos.
AS and AL West Fifty.slxth street to-.
day, with her three year-old son, Peter,
in her arms, intending to hide there
while her husband hunted through the
rooms for his missing family.
The combined weight OF the mother
and the babe smashed Mrs. Whelton's
scheme, Cooped In the little box she
shot downward Ave floors to the base
ment, and there, with the child clutched
to her breast, she was imprisoned at
the foot OF the shaft, moaning and
praying, while her frantic husband and
the other tenants spent half an hour
freeing her.
Little Peter got off with nothing
worse than a scare, but the woman is
in. Roosevelt Hospital with dangerous in.
ternal injuries and possibly 4 fracture
Of the base Of the spine.
Heard Scream From Outside.
Dennis Whelton. the husband. thirty
years old. works with his younger
brother, Cornelius, at garage nights.
Cornelius boards with the family. The
brothers got home tired. at $50 this
morning.
They found the hall door locked and
the only answer to their knocking
was scurylng sound within. Dennis
Whelton reached for his passkey. As
he put 1t In the lock and turned the
latch he heard Wild scream that died
away instantly into faraway sound
Of crying and groanlns.
The two men flung open the door and
rushed into the kitchen. From the open
iumbwaiter shaft came thread OF
sound in which Dennis Whelton could
recognize the voices Of his wife and
baby.
Run, Con-" he yelled. Both OF them
are in the dumbwaiter."
Pinned at Bottom Of Shaft.
Before the two men reached the base
ment the big tenement was humming
with excitement and living cascade Of
men and women and chill
iren followed in their wake as they sped
70 the cellar.
Mrs Byrne and Mrs. Martin. living on
he first floor, had heard the whiz, the
rash and the accompaniment Of shrill
and piping treble as the dumb
walter. with Its human freight. shot
Town to the bottom, and they were In
he cellar. trying hard t. drag out the
mother and child, when the Whetons
'eached the place.
So tightly was Mrs. Whelton wedged
n the dumbwaiter apparatus and SO
,losely was Peter held in her arms that
or nearly thirty minutes the mouth
u the SHAFT resisted the we'll meant but
'lumsy efforts of twenty strong hands.
some OF the men tried to drag the
iumowaiter back 70 the first floor,
vhere the door was larger than In the
easement, out Mrs. Whelton. conscious
!nd suffering agony, cried out that she
would be torn In two.
Finally, they cut the rope upon which
he elevator ran and dug the box, with
Is Two living occupants, out, literally BY
main force
by this time the policeman On the |
'eat had come, and Or. Bronnel with an
mbulance from Roosevelt Hospital, and
priest from the Pau!st church. on
Columbus avenue. a few blocks away,
he baby, Graded In his mothers pro |
Getting arms, was not even scratched.
nut the Young woman seemed in such a
'ad way that the priest gave her the I
'fices Of the Church on the cellar floor.
win the tenants kneeling about them.
Between means Of pain Mrs. Whelton .
old her husband how 1t happened She, |
With the child in the crook OF her Ell. /,
,ow, had mounted kitchen chair at !
he first sound OF Dennis's footsteps in I
he hall. climbed into the waiter, in |
ending 10 give him good scare and |
hen to nave the laugh on him all day,
The next thing she remembered was |
he terrible rush down the dark walls |
I the shaft, and the frightful shock as
he box struck with splintering OF |
wood at the bottom, seventy feet below,
She didn't want to leave her home, but |
he surgeon insisted on taking her to |
he hospital, where 1t was stated that
he might die.