Man Fails 110 Feet.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 52, 23 June 1914, Page 5

Man Fails 110 Feet.

HIS REMARKABLE ESCAPE. SAVED BY TELEGRAPH WIRES* To fall 110 ft. into a mass of telegraph wires, then to climb down to the street by means of the telegraph pole, to climb up seven flights of stairs and smoke a cigarette, was the performance of Sydney Wright, a young builder's laborer of Sydney, on Monday, loth inst. Wright was working with his mat© at Birt and Co's. tall new building in Bridge street. They were erecting scaffolding in front of the structure, and Wright was standing outside th» seventh floor, on a 3 by -tin. hurricane—or timber beam hammering away, when, to use the words of his mate, "he turned once round the hurricane and dived for the road. He turned over twice more," this chronicler proceeded, "and I looked down and saw him lob into the wires just like a big ball. I yelled to him to hang on to the wire* and started down for him. But he got to the ground before me." Wright set his teeeth when he fell among the wires. Eight of the wires were broken, and the sharp ends scored his face and head. For about a minut« he sat among the telegraph lines looking a bit dazed, then he climbed al#ng the wires for about 15 feet to the post, leaving his waistcoat hanging. It wag buttoned up tight when he started to fall.

He slipped down the post about 10ft. on to the roof of the shed which the contractor had erected in front of the new building. Thence he jumped into a heap of sand, and started for the stairs. Ho returned to the place where he had been working, borrowed a cigarette from his mate, and wanted to resume work.

Wright was persuaded to have a rest instead; but after sitting down for half an hour, he felt sick, so walked t» Sydney Hospital, close on half a mil* away, where the casualty surgeon pronounced him intact, except for a swollen head, but recommended him t® return if he felt ill. Last niarht Wright had not seen any necessity to go baok.

WHAT IT FELT LIKE. "FALLINC A MILE." "It seemed a mile; I thought I would never get there." Wright wa« lying down at his home, No. 1 Great Buckingham-street, Redfern, and he looked up to tell a visitor the story. "I suppose it really took two or three seconds for me to travel from that scaffold to the telegraph lines," he continued, "but it seemed an hour. I could hear my mate, Paddy, yelling out to me all the while, but I thought it was no good, until I saw the wirei. Then he knew I was allright. Paddy was yelling, 'Hang on to the iviret' and I knew if I could get hold of them, nothing would make me let go while I had any life left in me. I don't know what became of the tomahawk I wai Working with. It was in my hand whea I started, but I must have dropped it. I grabbed a bit of board, too, but lo»t that as I came down."

"No; I don't think I turned over more than once. Paddy is wrong if h« says I did three somersaults. How do I know? Easy. I could see the wiret all th© time, and if I had turned over three times I would have lost sight of them. Yes; it seemed an hour; but when I hit the wires I just started to go straight through them. I would have gone through the lot if it had nob been for the electric cable. That stopped me, and then I caught hold of a few wires with each hand, and hung on while I had a look round. As soon as I saw I was only about loft from the pole, I crawled along the wires and came down. "A bit tough am I? Well. I suppose so. You see, I've had five years in the navy, and that makes you tough. Yes, I'm tough enough. I've been half-drowned twice—once in Sydney Harbor, and once in Auckland. But this was the fineste thing I'v, experienced. The sensation of falling was real nice. "Yes: I only started on that job this morning, but I'll be there again to-morrow right enough."