Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 246, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 October 1911 — TUMBLES 160 FEET [ARTICLE]

TUMBLES 160 FEET

"Nine-Lives Dutchie” Has Re- ■ markably Long Fall. «• Didn’t Go to St Gregory's Hospital on ’ Account of His Injuries, but to Wait for a Second Pair of Trousers. New York.—Fellow workmen In the painting trade call Evan Shermon who la 60 years old, and lives at No. 200 West One Hundred and Twenty-first street, “Nine-Lives Dutchie,” and his old schoolmates dubbed *>ttn “Kitty, the Human Cat,” both sobriquets having to do with Sheripon'B ability to fall from heights varying from TO to 100 feet without hurting himself. He himself estimates that he. has had abdut 100 falls. But he sbojrs htmself without a scratch and to uure that he isn’t going to die that way.) f He fell eight stories from the Scott & Browne building near the Brooklyn bridge, about 100 feet But he was still the “Human Cat” of youth, for he landed on the flagstones on his feet. And it w/usn’t because of Injuries that he went to St Gregory's hospital. His trousers were torn and he went to the hospital to wait till another pair was sent to him. His knees were somewhat bruised and one hand lacerated. He was standing on the outer sill of a window in the eighth story when he slipped and pitched out into the air. Cries of horror arose from those who saw him from the street and they turned their heads away.Ao avoid the sight of seeing the man killed. But “Nine-Lives Dutehte” B&y on his way down some telegraph wires and he grabbed tor one. He caught it, but his weight tore the wire from his grasp; However, this act broke his fall. He landed on his feet and sank to his knees. For a little while he was stunned, but when the ambulance got there he was sitting up. *Tve been falling ever since I can

remember,” said Shermon. “I started by falling out of my high chair. When I was a boy the other boys called me "Kitty, the Human Cat” I was always climbing up somewhere and falling a good part of the time. I have fallen out of fruit trees about 25 times, I guess. I have toppled off barns and out of the haylofts about 20 times, too. I’ve fallen off fences about 30 times, off boats, six, and bicycles 18. 4“Only two weeks ago I tumbled off the fourth story of a building and I wasn’t a bit hurt I’ve had so much practice that I’ve kind of got a knack of falling on my feet like the pussy cats do.” The human tumble-bug said that during his fall he had his faculties with him all the way. “When I started to shoot down, . I kind of got a hunch that tay good luck in the past wasn’t going to desert me,” Shermon explained. “But this was sure the biggest fait I ever got You bet my brain was working fast.”