The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1916-07-21
BRIDGES At M|NNFOPA
| fL|MSY;; QUITE UNSAFE
Death Follows in Their Wake;
Drowning of Girl
SWEPT B THE CURRENT
Miss Esther .ssne Made Heroic
Effort to S 81 Cousin From
Fate

Bridges across Minneopa creek in
Minneopa park in many places are
very unsafe, very flimsy, very awk-
ward to cross. Some of them are prac-
tically traps, inviting children and
others into danger. The stream be-
meath them has been swollen high by
recent rains. 1t is a raging torrent,
powerful enough to drown good
sized child or even an adult. Such neg
ligence is inexcusable. 1t would be far
better to have no bridges in the park
at ALL
1t was one of these flimsy little
excuses for bridges that caused the
death of Miss Iva Rist, the girl who
was drowned at the park yesterday
afternoon. The plank along which she
walked was not straight, but slanted
and was crooked. She had on her
Shoes The water, it is thought, made
her dizzy. There was no railing, or
anything of the kind to hold to. 1t Is
not at all surprising that she fell in
to the water.
Miss Rist was being helped across
the bridge by her cousin, Miss Esther
Keen, behind whom Miss Rist walked.
Miss Rist carried kodak. OF sud-
den she lost her footing and dragged
Miss Keene into the water.
Tried to Save Iva.
"How / managed to get out l don't
know" said Miss Keene last evening.
81 tried to save Iva. 1t seems that she
held on to her kodak. What became
of that / cannot say. l grabbed at her
and caught her by one leg. but / could
not hold to her and fight my way too.
Just how / scrambled out, l don't
know, but l know that / managed to
got hold of tree.
"Those bridges are very unsafe. My
sister, Lois Keene, eight years old, a
short time before Iva fell in, had gone
across that very bridge. / was much
scared when L saw her out in the
middle of it.
81 have been told that two of those
little bridges were washed out dur
ing the great rain the other night. l
was told how two little boys fell into
the water from one Of them, not many
days ago, but they were saved. The
bridge from which they fell, was told
had been built by a boy who attends
to the stand out there.
She Made No Sound.
81 took all of the girls out to the
park in our automobile early in the
afternoon. Besides Iva, my sister and
myself, the party included Miss Esth-
er Reed of Dukes addition; Miss
Grace Willis, who rooms over the Sal
walton Army hall, and her cousin, a
girl from Madison, Wis. These three
last named were on the bank, when
Iva fell in and was swept out OF
sight. 1t seems that Iva did not
scream or make sound of any kind.
was carried down about 100 feet.
before I managed to get out. Iva, 1t
seems, had as good a chance to fight
her way out as 1 had. Why she did
not manage to get out, cannot ex-
plain
A short distance upstream from the
place where the accident happened.
thre is little bridge that consists OF
nothing more than a heavy pole.
about the size of an ordinary tele-
phone pole, laid across the stream. 1t
is kept wet by the spray of the raging
stream underneath, and it is not fiat
on top, but round. There is no. kind
of a railing to hold to. 1t would be
very easy for anybody to slip from
this into the stream. The girls did not
try to cross here.
Condemned the Bridges.
Rev. C. J. Shut, pastor of the
Episcopal church, is emphatic in his
condemnation of the bridges. He
speaks particularly of the one just
above the falls He saw several girls,
including some of those of Miss
Keene's party standing together on
that fiimsy structure, and he feared
that something on it would give way.
He advised them not to gather on the
bridge and they needed his advice.
After hearing of the accident, Rev.
Shut informed crew Of men work
ing on the railroad, and they procured
long poles and went down to the
stream, and searched for the body for
some time.
Those in charge of the park should
have provided bridges for the safe
conduct of people across the creek.
Stretched Wire Met.
Jesse Keene, father to Miss Esther
Keene, and l.. w. Andrist, the under
taker, were at the park yesterday aft
ernoon, looking for some trace Of the
body of the dead girl. A wire net, about
four feet wide, was stretched across
the stream at the Northwestern rail-
road trestle, which is only few rods
above the place where the creek
empties into the Minnesota river.
Here the wire net was weighted down
with stones and stretched across from
timber to timber of the trestle. 1t was
hoped that in this way the body would
be caught as it f1oated down the
stream. 1t was not thought likely that
the body had already floated down so
far, as this trestle is about mile be-
low the two Omaha railroad culverts.
The girl fell into the stream only a
few rods above these culverts.
1t was thought that as her COM
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