Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1886 — A Story by a Bricklayer. [ARTICLE]

A Story by a Bricklayer.

“Do we ever stop to think about the people who are compelled to pass under us?” said a bricklayer; “yes, we do, and often, too. People don’t seem to underi stand how careful we are not to drop bricks or pieces when working over sidewalks. I’ve been working on the Rialto, and the folks going to and from the Rock Island station nave persisted in walking under the scaffolding, though Mr. Griffith has kept ‘Danger—Keep Out!’ signs up all the time. Guess I’ll have to tell you the story of the man who came along under me one day just as I let a brick fall. It is a story of such presence of mind as you don’t often find in this world, I tell you, and as to the other world I don’t know nothing about it. What I mean is that it was the kind of presence of mind you read about and rarely or never see. Well, I let a brick fall and it went asailmg down. I called out as loud as I could; ‘Look out below!’ Then I got a look. On the ground below was a man, and the brick was going so straight for him that if he had stepped back a few feet it would have hit* him sure. I knew the man would jump one way or the other—people always do when suddenly alarmed—and on the way he jumped his safety depended. As the thought Hashed through my mind that people usually jump backward on such occasions, I felt as if that man’s life could not have been insured then for 99 cents annual premium on the dollar. But he didn’t jump at all. He threw his eyes up, sighted the brick, and walked along as calmly as if there was no danger near. The brick struck within eight feet of him, and made a hole in a board big enough to give one an idea of the effect it would have had upon a man’s head. This may seem like a little thing to you, but it struck me as being one of the neatest exhibitions of presence of mind I ever heard of.” —Chicago Herald.

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