The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1921-04-02
OY,7,LOSES LIFE
SAVING BEST GIRL
Mickey Ryan Gives First
Warning When East Side
Playground Collapses.
LAST TO SEEK SAFETY
Girders of Unfinished Building
Tumble After He Rescues
Helen-6 Others Hurt.
LAST TO SEEK SAFETY

Michael Ryan Of 1875 Third avenue,
years old, and who is-or was. rather,
because he was killed yesterday
afternoon-generally called Mickey.
thrashed another boy the other day
because the boy said that Helen Muir
ply Of 23S East Ninety-fourth street,
who is also years old, was Mickey's
girl.
The thrashing appeared 10 do the
other boy considerable good, and 1t
seemed also to put some new ideas
into Mickey's head, because all day
yesterday he was very careful not to
get his face dirty. and when school let
out in the afternoon he was as fresh
as daisy. He felt then that it was
not unbecoming for him to ask Helen
Murphy to play with him before they
went home to supper
Helen said she would. and SHE and
Mickey went TO a sort of playground
that the children had fixed up for them
selves. Some years ago construction OF
a building was begun at 217 East
Ninety-fourth street. but the work was
abandoned after the framework OF the
first floor had been completed. The
framework remained. and topping 1t
were three heavy iron girders about four
inches thick and twelve inches wide.
They were sunk into the walls of the
buildings AT 216 and 21s East Ninety
fourth street, and overhead was a
huge sheet of tin which served as a
roof. This was the playground, with
ropes for swings attached to the grid
ers.
II was there that Mickey and Helen
went with fifteen or twenty other chill
dren of about the same age. They got
into the place by crawling through a
hole which they had dug under an iron
railing and wooden fence about 10 feet
high. which the owners of the property
had erected to keep out trespassers
Once inside Mickey. by virtue OF pugilis-
tic prowess well known TO the other
boys. appropriated the finest OF the
swings to give Helen a ride He swung
her so high that her toes kicked the
sheet of tin.
She praised him, and Mickey felt
proud indeed. But in the midst of the
a.
sound, and he thought at once Of two or
three nights before when his father had
remarked that the framework would fall
some day and hurt some one. Mickey
set up shout for everyone to get out.
The children started poll nell through
the hole under the fence. pushing and
pulling In their eagerness to get away.
All of them got out quickly, and finally
Mickey himself started to wriggle to
safety.
But Mickey was only half through
when he heard Helen crying and he
saw that the little girl. terribly fright
ened, was trembling In a corner directly
under one OF the huge girders from
which came the cracking noise. He
yelled at her to hurry, but she did not
move. So Mickey crawled back into the
place, under the creaking, swaying
framework. He grabbed Heien's hand
and half dragged and half led her to the
hole In the fence. He told her to crawl
through. She did and to help her Mickey
pushed until finally her ankles disap-
peared under the fence and she was out.
And then Mickey stood up for an in
start. And In that instant the three
girders plunged downward One of them
hit Mickey In the back and knocked
bottom OF the iron railing. He managed
to scramble to his knees. Sticking his
head through the hole Mickey tried des-
perately to wrigglc out. lie was less
than half way through when all three
OF the girders smashed down upon the
fence and Mickey was half buried In
the wreckage.
A man was passing and stopped just
In time to see the giriers fall and a
heavy piece OF the fence strike Mickey
on the head. He managed to drag the
boy out from under the pile of iron and
un1bers. Mickey's body was limp, but
he wac moaning, and the stranger car
ried him to a drug store at Third ave-
nue. and Ninety-fourth street. When
Dir. Bonnyman reached there from
Flower Hospital Mickey was dead. Ills
skull had been crushed beneath the
heavy iron.
Most of the children who had been
playing IN the place got away from the
fence before the girders fell. but six
OF them besides Mickey we're caught ms
they scrambled on hands and knees
across the sidewalk and were hurt.
Frederick Welsh. $ years old. of rs
East Ninety fourth street. was the most
seriously injured. His skull was frac-
su-ed and lie was taken 10 Reception
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49,