The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1912-02-05
Two NJ en- Die Rather
Than Desert Help
less Companion.
|NIAGARA'S ICE
BRIDGE BREAKS
Suddenly Yields Before Mighty
Current, Carrying With 1t Vic
tins Who Had Been View
ing Rivers Winter Wonder.
Excursionists Narrowly
Escape Disaster.


The Srent ice bridge TINT has choked
the river channel between the cataract
and the upper steel arch bridge below
the falls for the last three weeks
broke from It's Snoring Just Mt noon
to-day and went down the river, talk
ing with 1t to their death u nun and
woman, believed to lie Mr. and Mrs.
EldridSe stanton. of Toronto, and
6urrell Hcacoci, seventeen years old,
OF Cleveland, D.. Four other persons
were on the ice mt the time, but Inan-
nged TO get ashore In safety.
The bridge was considered perfectly
SAFE. For weeks the great fields of
Ice had been coming down tho river,
piling up against the barrier, until
1t was from sixty to eighty feet thick.
and under the influence Of zero weather
tho great mass had become firmly an
chored to the shore. The jam was
about LOCO feet in length and in soma
places quarter OF a mile In breadth
For two weeks 1t had offered safe pas
sage to the hardy, and to-day an i'm
mense crowd OF eXcursionsts came 10
view the winter wonder OF the river.
Had the accident happened an hour
later In the day hundreds would have
lost their lives, for the crowd wa
moving Into Prospect Park In the elc.
Vators that run down the cliff for the
purpose OF venturinE upon the ice.
Give Lives for Woman.
Somewhere deep In the great w-hirl-
pool tonight sleeps the man, partially
Identified as Mr.. Stanton, who twice
put aside chances of rescue to remain
with his terror-stricl7cn wife. ana
who. in the shadow of death, spurned
assistance for himself and attempted
TO bind about the woman's body a ropo
dangling from the lower steel arch
bridge The lad, Burrcll Heacock. was
cast In the Same mold. Had he not
turned back on the Ice to give assist
ance to tho man. he. too, might have
made the shore.
On the bridge ut the time 1t tore
free from the shore. besides these
three. were Monroe Gilbert, OF this
city; Inatius Roth. Of Cleveland, Hea-
cocks companion; William Hill, an
old riverman: William Lablond, river
man, and an unidentified Italian.
HIS shack was nearest to the Amerl-
can shore. When he heard the grind
Ing and crashing of the ice he ran at
top speed towards the Canadian side,
calling to the others to follow him.
Laoiond gave them warning to safety
In that direction. Gilbert and tho
Italian followed their leader, but the
others became confused BY the time,
they had reGained their composurc tha
bridge was moving rapidly down the
river.
The man and woman started first
towards the American shore but they
were stopped by lake of open water
Back they ran again towards the Ca
madam shore, turned about and made
for the American side. When hardly
moro than nifty yards from the rocky
shore. the woman fell on her face,
utterly spent.
II can't go on: I can't so on" she
cried. Let us die here"
Turn Bnck to DEATH.
And all the time the great field IL
Ice driven onward by a southwest
gale and pressed by jam broken
free from Its anchorage near the base
OF the Horseshoe Falls, went on breast
ing the terrible outrush of the Ma
CARA Falls Power Company outflow, K
the mightiest current in all the river,
without being broken. AS the woman
Tell. the man strove to get her to her
feet again and tried to drag her along
the ice, calling for assistance to Roth
aud Heacock, who We're nearest
Heacock turned back to the couple
and helped support the woman The
act cost him his life
Roth struggled alone over the hum
mocks of ice. getting close to the open
stretch of water a the Canadian end
OF the jam. There were men on the
shore ready to give him assistance,
Lablond, Hill. William Cook and SUI
perintendent Harring, of the Ontario
Power Company. They were stationed
at the bottom OF the cliff just at the
foot of Eastwood Street, Niagara
Falls. Ontario. Roth was afraid to
trust himself in the icy waters. Lab
londc jumped out to the field OF Ice
with rope, and half carried and
dragged tho boy ashore.
Word that the ice bridge had como
out flashed through the city like Wild
fire. and within snort time the Amer
lean shore OF the river was lined by
thousands of people who witnessed the
tragedy being enacted In the deep ra-
vine below them.
After getting Roth safely ashore
the men made an effort 10 reach tho
other three on the ice floe. But at
point about 500 feet below the upper
.steel arch bridge the Ice field broke
into two great fields. One section went
towards the American shore and an
chored on great rock near the
hydraulic powerhouse. The moving
Zoe with the three helpless beinss
passed slowly down the river.
General AInrm Sounded.
Meantime the fire headquarters truck
had, been called out. and a general
alarm of fire on the Canadian side
called out tho mon there. They werc
stationed with ropes all along the
shore but the floe was far beyond
their reach. The Niagara Avenue ilre-
men were sent 10 the lower steel arch y
bridge and there took station with a
rope. The Canadian bremen had two 4
ropes down from the cantileyer bridge.