Evening star., 1916-03-19

selfishness and endurance of this young
officer. no life nor property was de-
stroyed. Mr.. Tingle was little more
than a boy at the time.
Every year New York city figures
well in the list of congressional medal
lists. Usually the heroes OF rescues So
the police or fire departments. But
William T. Hall is an engineer in the
division OF docks and ferries. He is a
stout fellow. and swimming Is not his
pride; but, spending most of his wax
ing hours overlooking the water. North
river (Which. if il could speak. could
tell so many eorrowful tales) mas no
terrors for him. He has really got
quite used to this business OF saving
people from this particular river.
He is a modest man, and seeking n
medal was the last thing he would ever
think of, but his friends thought
great deal of these efforts of his in
behalf of humanity and they knew how
much his children would cherish IN
later years some concrete sign stand
ing out as memory Of his courage and
kindliness. So they got in touch with
the proper authorities in Washington.
and he was induced to relate simply
and in his own words the story of hi,
principal rescues.
OF recent date. and addressed to an
official in the Treasury Department, is
the letter which acted as documentary
evidence, along with she affidavits o:
witnesses, and secured him the silver
congressional medal of honor:
while working as engineer at ST.
George Staten Island. during the early
afternoon of Tuesday. May ls, 1908.
was In the engine room repairing the
engine when | heard quite lot of ex
,it nf I
al first stopped what l was doing. and
listened. but as the sound seemed to
die away, ] went Oh working. | again
heard the shouting. and this time ran
out of the engine room to see what II
was all about.
II saw one of the men struggling ia
the water. and made an attempt to
jump overheard. but seeing that the
man was losing his strength went for
a yawl near the piledriyer, and reached
it at the stern, and managed TO grail
the man just as he was going down fo-
good. He was over two feet below tho
surface. / succeeded in pulling him into
the boat and found he was unconscious
and bleeding. 1t was necessary for
him to go to the hospital and have
stitches taken in his wounds. He was
Maurice Christal, one of the dock build
ers.
On September 25, 1909, during the
early afternoon, j was viewing the
naval parade at the Hudson-Fu!ton
celebration, with my family. on the
twenty ve-ton derrick at the foot OF
15Sth street and the North river. The
dock and entire shore were crowded
to the waters edge with people. The
cry arose amid the crowd. Man over
board, and I ran to the stern OF the
derrick and saw some one struggling
In hA ltnf oil M
overheard. fully dressed. and with a
pipe in my mouth. and swan out about
fifty feet. .
when I reached the man I had quite
a struggle, and 1 firmly believe that
the fellow attempted suicide. Tw"
policemen pulled both of us to the
dock. He gave his name rs James Sui
livan: and during the last year ! nave
heard that he really was drowned, inter
jumping from boat going TO Bear
mountain on the Hudson.
while working on piledriver NO. =,
department docks and ferries. July ~.
1912. at the foot of Perry street. North
river, heard the shouts of several peo-
pie on the dock that there was boy
drowning. All the men looking on
were much excited, hunting for some
thing to throw out, and as time was
being lost and the boy was sinking
fast, I stopped the engine and leaped
over its shaft and swan about 100 feet
toward the boy. He was exhausted,
and l was obliged to dive down and
catch him three or four feet from the
surface. 1t took some time to resusci-
tate him. He then gave his name to
the officers as John Smith. 120 Varick
street, New York city,
The names of the other silver medal
lists were John Belmont. Daniel Nc
Grath, J. B. Cadenbach. Robert A. Fowl
er. Joseph w. Finnegan. Ralph Wood
worth, Edward j. Grady, John Grady.
Michael Gilbride. Peter Mcneil. Albert
E. Kelly, William ]. Guerra. Mitchell
Stevens, Russell A. Presley. Ernest w
Keller, Claud r. Vandervert. John J.
Casey. Louis n. Miller. Hiel Van Cam
pen, James ]. Dicks, Edward Steger.
franklin johnson. Daniel J. Wall. Jo-
seph O'Connor. Christopher J. sullivan.
Rollie Meyers. William f. Melior, VIII
lie R. Jones. William J. Lahey, Albert
Deravin, William L. Donald. Clemon
Turner, Robert Newhouse, John II
Brennan. Charles q. Passmore and Jo-
seph Bannon. Charles Venus, sergeant.
Company /. 23d Infantry, United States
Army, is the only gold medalist OF
1915 who did not belong to the coast
guard.