Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1915 — Steeplejack Who Worked Here Gets Write-Up in Tribune. [ARTICLE]

Steeplejack Who Worked Here Gets Write-Up in Tribune.

Many Rensselaer people will remember Edmond von Kaenel, the steeplejack who scaled the flagpole on top of the court house a few months ago and took pictures of the city and who also worked for some time painting at Bt. Joseph’s college. Von Kaenel was given a page write-up in The Chicago Tribune Sunday and spoken of as a famous steeplejack who had scaled almost every flag pole in Chicago’s loop district". He induced> Oney Fred Sweet, a special writer for The Tribune, to climb a flag pole. Sweet followed Von Kaenel to the roof of a high building and after Von Koenel had climbed to the top of a flag pole and perched on its very top with his arms outstretched Sweet with ropes attached was drawn part way up the pole. Sweet looked down, a fatal mistake in climbinb to a great height. He be came dizzy and says that he suffered all the pangs of death as he imagined himself turning sommersaults down to the pavement. He called up to Von Kaenel to let him down again and his knees shook for some time after he reached the roof of a 17-story building. Von Kaenel said to him: “You got to imagining what would happen if you fell. I told you not to do that. I never allow myself to imagine such things. My motto is “I don’t care what your motto is”, answered the reporter, “I have a motto of my own; it’s “safety first.” The article is illustrated and the picture of Von Kaenel is plainly recognizable.