The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1919-01-30
ON THE CHIMNEY TOP
Perious Position IN Which Steeple Jack Was Left When
The Scafoding Buckled and Collapsed
Youths Companion

'onpanion
shoulders, was running; but l
couldn't see him move at all. Then
the base of the chimney was hidden
by q cloud of dust and the sound
of crash came up to me.
Il guess I tainted. Big waves
seemed to beat through my head
and tear at my throat and heave in
my stomach; the world turned
black. 1 just dropped forward on
my face.
when I could see again. l was
lying on my stomach with my
arms and legs dangling down on
both sides of the chimney, and one
cheek ground into the brick and
tingling where the wet mortar bit
the raw spot.
''But I was over my dizziness,
and after a second I put my hands
up under my chest. I was sur
prised to find l hadn't let 60 of
my trowel. Showing myself up
straight. got a good grip of the
wall with nv legs and then looked
down.
You can guess for yourself the
mess I found myself in. Even
now after years of experience hit
ting the high spots as a steeple
climber, I wouldn't put myself in a
place like that from choice. But I
was steady nerved, and at first /
was thinking less about myself
than about poor johnson and Ste
vens and our helper Tony. who had
gone down with the scaffold. The
dust had cleared. and Olsen was
poking through the wreck already,
pulling at planks and timber splin-
ters in a clumsy sort of way as if
he were dazed. From the IRON
works across the vacant lot a bunch
of men were running.
Il didn't think to shout, and I
don't know how long it was before
anyone spotted me up there on the
top. I probably didn't look very
big, from the ground; but finally
some one did look up.
by that time 1 had begun to
realize what l was up against.
There I was hundred and twen-
ty-fve feet up, straddling a thing
no more than ten inches wide-ten
inches doesn't make any boulevard
at that height, let me tell you-and
not a solitary thing to get a hold
on.
How 1 was going to get down
was something I couldn't figure.
There wasn't a ladder in the
country that would have reached
half way up to me. and the Chin
ney itself was about as bare as a
bald mans head.
The only break in the smooth
ness was the permanent outside
ladder. We had erected that as
we built-a common iron ladder
perhaps twelve inches wide and
made in ten. foot sections. 1t stood
about four inches out from the
chimney on iron brackets that were
bedded in the brick work, ten feet
apart.
Il had been working over it
when the scaffold fell; it was the first
thing l saw when I looked down.
For a minute the sight of it gave
me a ray of hope; but l soon real
lied that it would have been just
as much help to me over in China
as where it was. The last brack-
cts we had set were about two feet
below the level where the scaffold
had been before the accident. That
put them about six feet under me,
and six feet looked as good as q
mile from where / sat.
''And even that wasn't the whole
story. We hadn't bolted the last
ten-foot section into place yet. So
the top rung of the completed lad
der was ten feet plus six feet be-
low me sixteen feet. / saw right
away that no one could help me
from underneath by way of that