The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-02-05
DEATH STALKS IN
 PATH OF NIAGARA
 |CE BRIDGE THAW
Three Meet Awful Death In Sea of Ice-Four
 Reach Shore
BRIDGE CONSIDERED
 THOROUGHLY SAFE
Frozen Mass Broke From Snoring. Hundreds Have Marrow Escape. Thousand Feet in Length.
 Heroism Cost Life

AtCtoiSm SVSt q LttN
 Niagara Falls. N. Y, February 4.-The great ice bridge that has choked the river channel between the cataract and the upper steel arch bridgf 1w the falls for the last three week. SSSe from its snoring just at noon to 9 : nd went down the river taking " V to their be MT. and Mrs. Eldr' g stanton of Toronto. Canada, and oSll Heaeock, F years old, of Clevelaf '~s ~sSss-sFour other persons were on the.Af6 q the time. but managed to gss~asho |, . safety.
 The bsfuge was tered perfectly safe For weeks t eat fields of ice had been coming dow. the river piling up against the barrier until 1t was from 50 to 80 feet thick and under the in fiuence of zero weather had become firm ly anchored to the shore. The jam was about 1000 feet in length and in some places quarter of mile in breadth. | For two weeks it had offered safe pas sage to the hardy and today an im- mense crowd of excursionists came to view the winter wonder of the river. Had the accident happened an hour later i in the day hundreds would have lost their lives, for the crowd was moving into Prospect Park in the elevators, that run down the cliff for the purpose of yenturing out upon the ice.
 l Somewhere deep in the great whirlpool tonight sleeps the man partially iden- tified as Mir. stanton. who twice put aside chances of rescue in order to remain with his terror stricken wife.
 Heroism Cost Life
 The lad, Burrell Heacock, was cast in the same mould. Had he not turned back on the ice to give assistance to the man he, too, might have made the shore. on the bridge at the time 1t tore free from the shore besides these three were Mon roe Gilbert of this city, Ingus Roth of Cleveland, Heacock's companions: w. M. l Hill an old riyarman; W. M. I.ablond, rivernIan, and an sffnidentifjed Italian 4+' i Hiirnearest to tiies American shore heard the grinding and crashing of the ice and ran at top sped Awards the Canadian shore calling to the others to follow him. J Labiond gave them warning that safety lay in that direction. Gilbert and the Italian followed their lead, but the oth DTS became confused. By the time they had regained their composure the bridge was moving fast down the river. The man and woman started first toward the American shore but they were stopped by lane of l open water. Back they ran again toward i the Canadian side, turned about and made 1 for the American. When harly more than 50 yards from the rocky shore the woma n fell on her face utterly spent.
 Woman Exhausted
 'T can't go on; cant go on," she cried 1 Let us die here,' and all the time the l great field of lee driven onward by southwest gale, and pressed by a jam broken free from it's anchorage near the base of the horseshoe falls went on breast l ing the terrible outrush of the Niagara Falls Power companys tunnel outflow, the mightiest current in all the river, without 1 being broken. As the woman fell the man strove to get her to her feet again and tried to drag her along the ice, calling I for assistance and Roth and Heacock who were nearest Heacock turned bac ok to the couple and helped support the woman. The act cost him his life,
 1 Roth struggled along over the hum l mocks of ice, getting close to the open stretch of water at the Canadian end of the jam. There were men on the shore ready to give him assistance. Lablond, Hill. William Cook and Supt. Harry King | of the Ontario Power company stationed themselves at the edge of the water. l Roth was afraid to trust himself to the icy water. Lablond jumped out to the field of ice with rope and half carried, half dragged the boy ashore.
 l Word that the ice bridge had gone out was flashed through the city like wild 1 fire and within a short time the. Amer l ioan shore of the river was lined by l thousands of people, who witnessed the tragedy being enacted in the deep ravine below them.
 After getting Roth safely ashore the men make an effort to get the other three on the ice foe. But at a point about 600 feet below the Upper steel i arch bridge the ice field broke into two great fields, one going toward the Amer ican side and anchored on great rock near the hydraulic power house. The moving foe with the three helpless be- ings passed slowly down the river
 Bremen Called Out
 Meantime the fire headquarters truck had been called out and general alarm Of fire on the Canadian side called out inc men there. They took station with rones along the shore, but the foe was far beyond their reach. The Niagara ave- nue firemen were sent to the lower steel arch bridge and there took station with ropes. The tdlidbinfi ''e-N w V ropes down from the Cantilever bridge. which is about 900 yards above the other structure.
 Heacock waved his hand to his com- panions in distress as his foe moved and caught in a current down the river. The other foe then shot toward the American shore and was caught in an eddy and
 whiried there for about five minutes This was in sight of the tumbing waters that
 marked the beginning of the rapids and death
 Heacock saw the ropes dangling from the bridge and made ready to catch one. 1 Very coolly be took off his oyercoat and posed himself the tossing foe. In hls course there dangled one rope. and a second was moved toward him. He caught
 that held by officer Pat Kelley of the | Ontario police force and a company of about 2o railroad men--caught it and 1 jumped free of the ice.
 The sag of the rope at that great drop 200 feet let him into the chilly water up to his waist. And before he was clear of if he was frirhtfully battered by three
 successive foes of jutting ice.
 Desperate Effort for Life
 Not content with the efforts or the men above to draw him mp he tried to assist | himself hand over hand, The time wal 1:1o. and the hour or more the boy had been in the ice and the effect of the Ice had spent his strength He stopped trv.