Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1915-08-14
Paterson Negro Boy Is Real Hero,
Grabs Girl On Brink Of Cataract,
Treading Water, Saves Her Life
Remarkable Rescue of -Four Lives BY Policemen After
Brave Struggle Against Desperate Odds In Passa-
ic RiUer When Motor Fails With Pleasure Party
In Boat Young Negro Daringly Risks Life

Paterson, N. j., August 11.-While
300 persons cheered him and prayed
for him, negro boy swan out from
a bank of the swollen Passaic River
this afternoon into the rushing cur
rent until he was within a few feet
of the eighty-foot drop of Great Falls
and certain death, tied rope about
the limp body of Josephine Dermico
and held fast to her until willing
hands pulled the unconscious girl and
her rescuer to safety. A moment
later the motor boat from which Miss
Dermico and three others had been
hurled, and another craft that went
to their rescue, went crashing over
the falls into thousand splinters on
the rocks below.
Miss Dermico's three companions
on an afternoons outing had been
rescued by other motor boats that
would not dare death at the edge of
the eightyfoot falls to go after the
twirling body of Miss Dermico, help
less as fiotsam in the swollen stream
1t was then that black little John
Sisco darted from the crowd, stripped
off his shirt and jumped into the
river.
He swan out and up stream, allow
ing the current to bear him down
upon the girl drifting so swiftly ever
nearer the brink of the falls. While
the spectators alternately held their
breath and cheered him, he reached
the girls side. He grasped her dress
in one hand and tried to swim against
the current, but lost distance. He
took her hair in his teeth and tried
with both hands, but he was swept
slowly toward the falls.
The brave effort seemed vain when,
from motor boat tied by long
cable to the bank, rope sailed almost
to Sisco. Again it was thrown, this
time falling over the struggling boy
and the helpless girl. Treading
water, Sisco wrapped the rope twice
around the girl, tied it, clasped his
arms about her body, and gave the
signal to pull away. When they
were dragged upon the bank Miss
Dermico was turned over to physl
clans care. The little black hero took
a rest and drink of brandy, recov-
cred his shirt, and vanished.
Tony Place, his wife, Margaret,
and Miss Dermico, all of 159 Twelfth
avenue, and Vincent Juliano, of Al
Market street, were out in Placo's
new motor boat for pleasure trip
up the Passaic River, when the engine
went dead about 600 feet above the
Great Falls. While Place tried to
start the engine the boat drifted
rapidly down toward the eighty-foot
drop in the river swollen by the re-
cent rains. Juliano tried to stop the
boat with the only oar aboard, but it
was quickly snapped in two.
Policeman James Kelly, in the city
police patrol boat, saw the danger OF
the party and set out to rescue its
members. He got close to them, when
he saw he could not succeed, and,
shouting to them to jump, he leaped
into the current as both boats went
over six-foot dam 100 feet above
the falls. Placo's boat kept upright
for a dozen feet and then upset,
throwing the occupants into the river.
Kelley seized Mrs. Place and started
for shore A rope was thrown them
from another boat and they were
dragged to safety. Other rescuers,
led by James Arnot, of So Oak street,
rescued Place and Juliano by throw
ing them ropes from motor boats A
stalled engine on any of the boats
meant a struggle for life for the oc-
cupants.