The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1912-02-09
THOUSANDS WITNESS
THRILLING TRAGEDY
Three Float te Death in
Niagara's Icy Waters
Victims Caught in Whirl-
pool.

the river channel between the Cata.
ract and the upper steel arch bridge,
below the Falls. for the last three
weeks. broke from it's snoring just
at noon today and went down the
river, taking with it to their death a
man and woman, believed to be
Mr.. and Mrs. Eldridge Stanton, of
Toronto, Canada, and Burrell Hea.
cock, H. years ofsage. of Cleveland;
O. Four other persons were on the
ice at the time but managed to get
ashore in safety.
The bridge was considered per-
fectly safe. For weeks the great
fields of ice had been coming down
the river, piling up against the bar
rier, until it was from 60 to 80 feet
thick, and under the influence of
zero weather had become firmly an
chored to the shore. The jam was
about 200 feet in length and in
some places q quarter of mile in
breadth. For two weeks it had Of
fered safe passage to the hardy and
today an immense crowd of excur-
sionists came to 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 was moving into Prospect
Park in the elevators that run down
the cliff leading to the ice.
NO THOUGHT OF SELF.
Somewhere deep in the great
whirlpool tonight lies the man part
ly identified as Mr.. Stanton, who
twice put aside chances of rescue in
order to remain with his terror
stricken wife, and who in the shadow
OF death--just at the break in the
rapids--spurned assistance for him
self and attempted to bind about the
woman's body a rope dangling from
the lower steel arch bridge. The
Lad, Burrell Heacock. was cast in
the same mould. Had he not
turned back on the ice to give assis-
tanoe to the man he, too, might
have made the shore. - ~
On the bridge at the time it tore
free from the shore besides these
three were Monroe Gilbert, Of this
city; Ignatius Roth. of Cleveland,
Heacock's companion. William Hill,
an, old riverman; VIM. Lablond,
riverman, and an unidentified Ital-
ian.
FIRST SIGN OF DANGER.
Hill, nearest to the American
shore, heard the grinding and crash
ing of the ice and ran at top speed
towards the Canadian shore, calling
to the others to follow him. La
blond gave them warning that safety
lay in that direction. Gilbert and
the Italian followed their lead. By
thetime they had regained their COM
posure the bridge was moving fast
down the river.
The man and woman started first
towards the American shore, but
they were stopped by a lake of open
water. Back they ran again towards
the Canadian side, turned about
and made for the American side.
When hardly more than fifty yards
from the rocky shore the woman
fell on her face utterly spent.
81 CAN'T GO oN.'
Il can't 60 on; I can't 60 on"
shr cried. Let us die here"
And all the time the great field
of ice, driven onward by a south
west gale and pressed by a jam
broken free from its anchorage near
the base OF the Horseshoe Falls,
went on. AS the woman fell the
man strove to drag her along the ice,
Iaiiin. in for assistance to Roth and
HeacOck.
Roth sttugeied along over the
hhfnmocks of ice, getting close to
the open stretch Of water at the
Canadian end Of the jam. There
were mon on the shore ready to give
him assistance. Lablond. Hill,
William Cook and Superintendent
Harry King, of the Ontario Power
Company, stationed themselves at
the edge of the water.
Roth was afraid to trust himself
to the icy waters. Lablond jumped
out to the field of ice with a rope
and half carried, half dragged the
boy ashore.
THOUSANDS LINE SHORE.
Word that the ice bridge had gone
out flashed through the city like
wildfire and within short time the
American shore of the river was