AN ABERDEEN SENSATIDN

Evening Star, Issue 21037, 26 February 1932, Page 12

AN ABERDEEN SENSATIDN

SKELITOH ON WEATHER VANE Aberdeen papers now to hand give particulars of an amazing practical joke of the sensational order—a subject that was recently mentioned in the cablegrams. The town was intrigued one morning by the sight of a strange figure perched on top of the weather vane of the Mitchell Tower in the Marischal College, at a height of 235 ft. The tower is tapered on somewhat similar proportions as that of the First Church steeple in Dunedin. With legs dangling down and right arm pointing aloft, and dressed in white, the figure at first glance looked like that of a painter at work. A longer look, however, revealed that the figure bad on its head a belltopper. Painters don’t wear such headgear—when working on the pinnacles of towers, at all events —and the general opinion was reached that it was a lay figure, placed there by way of a prank. Somebody came with binoculars, and an eerie feeling took possession of a small crowd in the quadrangle of the college when it was emphatically declared that the mysterious figure, sitting so precariously on the vane, was a skeleton with death’s head grinning under the glossy silk hat and clad in white pyjamas. Varying proposals were made as to how to get the think down, one being that a steeplejack be engaged, another that the intrepid climber who placed the skeleton on its lofty pinnacle be offered a “ free pardon ” if he undertook to bring down the effigy which he so efficiently took up. Dr J. R. Levack, a mountaineer of long experience, said; “It is a most extraordinary feat to have climbed to the top of the Mitchell Tower and placed an effigy on the weather vane. Whoever did it must bo an expert climber and have had considerable experience, for, as well as physical strength and agility, there were the important factors of balance and levelheadedness. I have never heard of such an achievement. Some years ago at Oxford or Cambridge—l forget which—some of the undergraduates set out to traverse the ridges and pinnaces of the colleges, but they were equipped with mountaineering appliances, ropes, and so forth.” After being for a week the unsolved problem of Aberdeen, two young slaters climbed the spire and brought down the effigy. Eventually the method by which the prank was carried out was divulged by one in the know. The feat was performed by a student single-handed. At 9 o’clock at night this mysterious daredevil with the gruesome figure strapped to his back and carrying a rope to help him ifi his climbing, began his ascent. Afterwards lie admitted that it was a good bit of climbing, but he added that it was never very difficult, and the rope was required only at the top during the time he was tying on the skeleton. What made the feat all the more daring is that the climb was made in total darkness and when there was a stiff breeze blowing. The night was also bitterly cold.