THE BRAVE MAN WHO DID NOT LET GO

Evening Star, Issue 20137, 30 March 1929, Page 20

THE BRAVE MAN WHO DID NOT LET GO

A TRUE BED-TIKE TALE Those men who ride the steel girders the giant cranes swing high against the skv must have nerves like the steel they rivet in its place. Surely thennerve can never lail them, or they could not go on. But it snaps sometimes. It snapped when two men, Harry Ogden ana bred Hargreaves, steel erectors, were working on the steel frame of an extension wnich was being made to a cotton mill at Ashton-under-Lyrie. I'lieir platform was i4(Jft from the ground, a dizzy height indeed tor ordinary mortals, though it was all in the day's work tor them and made neither man in the least uneasy. Then, in a Hash, the nerve which sustained them in such a position wa» swept away bv an accident. The narrow platform'of the scaffolding where they stood at their task was slippery with the rain. Ogden's foot slipped. He reeled. He fell. He was falling cii the scaffold to death, 140 ft below. As he felt himself going he c.utcued at the leg of his mate. He Just managed to grab it, and Hargreaves, Jus leet slipping from under him, followed Ogden to his doom—or it seemed that he must. - But Hargreaves, also clutching fiercely at the nearest thing, managed to seize hold of the jib crane rope while he was still falling. Of the two men in this frightful position Hargreaves kept his head the better. On the other hand, it was only by Gods Providence that a rope was within his reach. For a fearful instant it seemed that he had made a no better choice than Ogden, for the rope ran out for a few feet, and ho and Ogden plunged earthward together till pulled up with a jerk. The crane was not locked, but as it chanced the rope- ran out no farther.

Yet there they hung, their bodies nearly flung downward by that terrific jerk, Hargreaves clinging with both hands to the rope, Ogden holding on for dear life with both hands to Hargreaves’s leg. How long could either last? Even had the unhappy Ogden had a thought to let go, so as not to drag his fellow-workman to destruction with him, we doubt if he could have done it. Ho was paralysed with the shock. His wits as_ well as his nerve had gone for the time being. There was a gleam of hope. The plight of the two men had been perceived almost at once, for a good many men were employed on the steel erection job. A group of them hastened to the scaffolding where Ogden and Hargreaves had been working. But it was a tiny platform. It would not hold more than two men at a time, and two men wore not strong enough to haul the others back.

They tried the crane. It had jammed and would not work, and the seconds were running out. How much longer could Hargreaves last? Someone hud au idea. They slung a rope over one of the steel girders and lot it run down to tho lower man for him to seize. But by this time poor Ogden was almost past help. Ho had only one thought in his mind, which was to cling with all his might to what he had got hold of, the leg that had saved him. He was too terrified to let go will) one hand and seize the rope with the other. He shouted at his would-be helpers. But that was all. The strain on Hargreaves was terrible. Ho plainly could not hold on to the rope much longer. Then there arrived a man who had all his wits about him, and all the courage that was wanted. There was another crane. Let that crane wind him up to Ogdon and lie would see what lie could do. They wound him up from a lower platform swiftly, just in time. He slung a rope round the terrified man and persuaded him to let go of the leg. Ogden was then hauled up to safety with his rescuer. Then down went the labourer again to Hargreaves, wound the rope round him, and this poor fellow was also brought up to tho platform. ’The correspondent who sends us this storysays that of the two Hargreaves suffered most from strain and shock. And, adds he, that’s all. He docs not even tell us flic name of the labourer who thought of the rope trick. Perhaps that is because there is always a brave man when a brave man is wanted.