The Hartford herald., 1912-02-07


general alarm of fire on the Cana
dian side called out the men there.
They took station with ropes along
the shore, but the foe was far be-
yond their reach. The Niagara av-
enue firemen were sent to the lower
steel arch bridge, and took station
with a rope. The Canadian fire.
men had two ropes down from can
tilever bridge, which is about 800
yards above the other structure.
Just above old Maid of the Mist
landing, a quarter of a mile from
the whirlpool rapids, the foe on
which the three were borne broke
into two sections, each about 200
feet square, the man and woman on
one, Heacock on the other.
Heacock waved his hand to his
companions in distress as his foe
moved clear of the other, and,
caught in a current, raced down the
river. The other foe then shot to-
wards the American shore, and was
caught in an eddy and whirled there
for about five minutes. This was
within sight of the trembling waters
that marked the beginning of the
rapids and death.
Heacock saw the ropes dangling
from the bridge and made ready to
catch one. Very coolly he took off
his overcoat and posed himself on
the tossing foe. In his course there
dangled one rope, and a second was
moved towards him.
He caught that held by Oficer
Pat Kelly, OF the ontario police
force, and a company of about twen-
ty railroad men, caught it and
jumped free of the ice.
The sag of the rope at that great
drop, 200 feet, let him into the chill
ly water up to his waist. And be-
fore he was clear of it he was
frightfully battered by three sue
cessive foes Of jutting ice.
Not content with the efforts of
the men above to draw him up, he
tried to assist himself hand over
hand. The time was 1:1O o'clock,
and the hour or more that the boy
had been on the ice and the effects
of the icy ducking had sapped his
strength. He stopped trying to pull
himself up and hung limp on the
rope, which spun him around like a
top.
Kelly and his men pulled steadi-
ly. Ten feet, twenty, twenty-five,
thirty feet, up he came. The great
crowd on the bridges cheered-
those that were not weeping. Grim
ly the boy hung on, trying always to
get himself or his leg wound about
the rope.
Then his hands began to slip. He
sought to get hold of the rope with
his teeth, but could not. Finally,
just as he was about sixty feet clear
of the water, his head fell back. He
was utterly spent. He lost his grip
and plunged far down into the
stream.
When he came up his face turned
toward the great wave, and he feeb-
ly moved his arms in the breast
stroke. But the mighty rush of
water was too much for him. He
was caught like cork, and was
sent racing into the midst Of the
seething water. For perhaps a half
minute he was in view, and then he
disappeared in the spume.
Heacock's failure was witnessed
by the man on the other foe. The
woman apparently dared not look.
The man appeared calm, as he in
turn prepared to make p play
against death, when, caught by
iown-river current, the foe moved
INTO the course Heacock had gone.
AS the couple swung under the
bridge the man grasped
rope and tried to put it about the
waist The force of the !
was too much for the rope.
I parted, and the man waved the
orn end toward the crowd.
There was still another chance
he rope that was dropped from the
over steel arch bridge by the Mag
ra avenue firemen. AS the foe
vent into swift drift the man caught
/, and grimly hung on. He was
iven slack, and he tried to wind the
ope about the womans waist. He
nmbled in his agony of effort as if
is hands were numb.
The rush of the ice in the stream
as overpowering. When he could
OF tie the rope about the woman he
It It go.
There apparently was no thought
himself. He raised the woman to
er feet, kissed her, and clasped her
his arms The woman made as ,