Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-01-19
BIG CROWD SEES
HUMAN FLY SHIN
UP SKYSCRAPER
Harry Gardiner Climbs Fourth
National Bank Building in
Presence of Thousands De-
spite Rain-Soaked Bricks

Harry Gardiner. the Human Fly,
climbed the Fourth National Bank
building Tuesday afternoon in the pres
ence OF crowd several thousand strong
that packed Five Points from sidewalk
20 sidewalk.
He began climbing at 1880 o'clock
the Scheduled time. crawling up the
sheer Marietta street side foot by foot.
At five minutes to / o'clock he lifted
himself over the edge of the roof
Then, as much out of sheer bravado
as anything else, ne scattered up the
fiagpoIe on top of the building like a
monkey up a ships mast and hung at
the peak for a moment. waving his hand
10 the crowd below, which roared its
approval
Fifteen minutes before the hour
scheduled for the Figs feat, hundreds
OF people dribbled toward the building
BY 1890 the crowd was thick. mass
that completely choked Five Points, ex-
tended half block up Marietta street,
nearly block down Decatur street and
EdgewOod avenue and as far up Peach
tree as Auburn avenues where the spec
tators had a. full front view of the side
OF the building and Gardiner, a white
midget, on its side
ELECTION NIGHT CROWD.
The crowd was as conglomerate as any
election night mob. There were hun
dreds of women, many children. From
office buildings on every hand and from
the windows of the Fourth National
bank building itself, heads craned out.
As cars and automobiles tangled their
way through the crush, passengers
swarmed TO one side or the car and only
the motcrman kept his eyes ahead.
1t had been raining all night and well
into the morning. so that the steep side
of the building looked wet and sinister.
He won't try it. too wet" the. whis-
per ran through the crowd, but Gardiner
never flinched.
Promptly on the minute he wrapped
his feet around the first layer of bricks
and began to shunt upward like a mig
ger UP a sapling after a 'possum in the
topmost branch.
He climbed by the columns between
the windows, digging his fingers seem
ingly into the solid brick, but in reality
grasping the thin, narrow space that
succeeded each other at regular inter
walls At every floor he swung himself
into the mouth of the window and
stopped to breathe moment and wave
his hand to the crowd.
From the first cornice, thirty feet
from the ground, there is an UNMARRIED
stretch of columns and windows, to an
other, about thirty feet short of the
roof. 1t was evident that it would be
comparatively simple work for Gardiner
10 make that Intervening distance. The
tug would come at the end of the climb,
when he must bunch himself over the
second cornice. skin up another column
and by apparently impossible craft, wig
gle under and over the roof that pro-
jected far out over the building.
But though the crowd did not doubt the
fly's ability there was a silent, tense
strain on all as they watched him. A
glance at the crowd showed field OF up
i lifted faces, turned toward the lowering
sky, as if they waited for the gray to
break and a bolt shoot down from the
blue
But in reality every pair of eyes
was on the Fly, shining and struggling
and looping himself into window after
window. -
HE SLIPS!
Once he slipped-feet' shot out from
under him, swinging back and forth
like a pendulum-and woman choked
a scream
Gardiner turned and grinned at the
field. Of faces.
..I'u bet he did it on purpose!" ex-
claimed the woman peevishly; then
caught her breath as the Fly worked
himself UP another notch.
At the cornices Gardiner propped him
self on his elbows and his hands clench-
| ed across the stone, until. swinging
back and forth as a vaulter might on
the parallel bars, he could throw his
legs UP and over the cornice. This was
| spectacular enough when Gardiner did
il on the first cornice. but at the second,
thigh above the street, it-was we'll nigh
sickenins
The|toughest part of Gardeners climb
Judging from the time he spent over
lit-nearly five whole minutes!-was the
space between the last cornice and the
roof. He tried column after column, and
when he finally fixed upon one, fumbled
for a long time about it before he finally
chinned the roof, placed one leg over the
edge and scrambled to safety.
From the crowd went up a roar.
Gardiner waved his hands and shouted
a shriu message that was carried away
in the great distance.
Then-as the big throng went their
ways, exclaiming and marveling, the
Human Fly ran up the flag pole, ran
down again, and the show was over.
=