The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1924-07-17
STEEPLEJACK FALLS 60 FEET FROM
ANTELOPE ELEVATOR But SURVIVES
sally Jack" Finney After
Adventurous Career on Sea
and Land Meets With Acct
dent in North Dakota,
While Seeking Escape From
the Call of the Sea-Suffers
Broken Arm, Cracked Rib
and Bruised Leg

Martin j. "Sailor Jack" Finney, who
was reared in North Dakota and lists
Chicago as his home, has taken
lot of hard knocks around the world
with little trouble, and he has just
taken about the worst knock of all
in North Dakota and still survives.
Finney fell 60 feet from the top
of the Occident elevator at Antelope,
North Dakota, striking in grain
bin partially filled with wheat. The
loose grain served as cushion to
break the shock of the fall, and he
escaped with broken arm, bruised
leg and cracked ribs. He is now be-
ing cared for at Hebron.
But let Finney tell the story of
his narrow escape from death. He
has written of it, and some of his
adventures around the world, to a
Bismarck friend. Finney recently ap-
pearcd on a boxing card at Mandan,
boxing with Jack Hoffman Of that
city.
II was going on the manlift to the
top of the elevator and l stepped
off and proceeded to make nay way
across the Instructions to the Win
dows which I had to take out and
throw line over the top in order
to ascend to the roof. as l was in
stalling lightning rods on all of
the Occident elevators, when one of
the spouts leading into an empty
grain bin gave way just as stepped
on it and down l went to the bot
tom," wrote Finney.
Landed on All FOurs
"1 landed on all fours, more to the
left side. Well, 1 only got a COM
pound fracture of my left arm AID
a broken left rib and a badly crushed
back and right leg. I'm at present
confined in private home at He
bron, with trained nurse at my
bedside. I think I'll come all right
in short order
"Sailor Jack" Finney's trade is that
of steeplejack, although he likes to
box and has served in the navy. He
has climbed some of the tallest build
ings in the country, and recently
worked atop the Stevens building in
Chicago, several hundred feet high.
The fall from the Antelope elevator,
he wrote, was his first.
Finney has sailed the seven seas
and has been in most of the ports
of the world. He also sought pugi
listic fame, and was, held amateur
batamweight champion of Brooklyn
some IL years ago. He also was q
wrestler and a circus clown, being
with circus in South America,
Australia and at Cape Town, South
Africa. He also introduced the box
ing game in the interior of Nicarau
qua, Columbia and other places in
Central America. He also went
through the experience of being
"pinched" in Florida and made to
work in lumber camp near Talla-
hassee, Florida, where Martin Tabert
WAS killed.
Ship-wrecks also are listed in the
experiences Of the young man. Last
March he was shipwrecked off the
coast of Maryland, while on the oil
tanker Louisiana. The ship sank.
gradually while on the bar and sever
al of the crew of revenue cutter
lost their lives in an attempting res
cue.
Finney was sailor when The war
broke out and his ship was pressed
into service as a naval transport.
He quit the sea in 1921, and he got
about as far away from water as
he could. Now, laid up in bed. he
is thinking about the sea again, and
fipures he will 90 back eventually.