Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1881 — A Human Pendulum. [ARTICLE]

A Human Pendulum.

OlnclnnaU Commercial. Bernard Koehler and Fritz Hisgen, two house-painters, yesterday began painting the large house at Betts street and Central avenue. Three o’clock in the afternoon found them close up under the eaves of the house and sixtyfive feet from the ground. They had just finished the surface within reach and had started to lower the scaffold a few feet. When the required distance had been reached Hisgen called to his partner to hang on to the rope until he (Hisgen) tied his own, when be would come over and perform a like service for him. Hisgen had just completed his own knot when Koehler cried out: “Come over quick, I can’t hold it.” Hisgen, as quickly as possible, sta' ted across the aerial bridge, but had not gone two steps when he saw the man let go his hold and felt the ladder give way beneath his feet. As he began the fall, in the energy of desperation he, with both hands, grasped the almost smooth top of the fourth-story window cornice and there hung in the air, a distance of sixty feet from the pavement. He then gave an exhibition of nerve that terrified every one who saw it., Placing the toe of one boot against the window frame he gave his body a slight pendulum motion away from the house. A second push gave him a better impetus and as he swung on the return toward the window he released his hold and went crashing through the glass safely to the floor of the fourth.story room, from whence he immediately looked out through the aperture he had made to see what had become of his companion. Koehler had not been quite so fortunate. As he went shooting through the air he caught the hanging rope with both hands and lessened his speed all the way down at the expense of all the cuticle of his palms, which was burned off by the friction. He landed in a sitting posture on the sidewalk and was taken to the hospital with a pair of very sore hips.