Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1881 — Crazed :by Fright. [ARTICLE]

Crazed :by Fright.

New Orleans Picaynne. At two o’clock on a recent morning a gentleman lelt his club in this city with a friend, and, the latter returning fox his cane, the former concealed himself in the bottom of a big h.x that holds the balancing weight of the elevator and is caiied a “lift case.’’ The friend came back and went away dit- ‘ gusted at finding no trace of thejoljy joker. The latter, as he entered the lift case, had closed the door. He tried to open it but could not, for it opened without a key ouiy from the outside. He laughed heartily to see the biter bit, until presently he heard a noise which he could not ministerpret. The lift was slowly falling down from the fourth floor. He, in groping for the door, had pulled the rope which set it free. Death stared hina in the face, for that immense mass of iron would inevitably crush him as flat as a pancake, and by a slow torture that would make dying seem an agony of horrors. He became frantic with fear. He flung himself against the door of his lift cue as only dis pair could, he shrieked for help. His shrieks were heard by the Janitor, who found him in a swoon and dragged him out when the lift was only fifteen feet eff. A physician was summoned. Consciousness was restored. The unfortunate gentleman sprang to his feet, screamed incoherently, with wild gestures. He was crazy.