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Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4468, 18 September 1922, Page 2

The steeplejack’s sensational fall and lucky escape from death in Glasgow, reported a day or two ago, reminds me (says a writer in the " Dominion ”) that there are extraordinary individuals in the United States who make a living by climbing up the face of sky-scrapers, towers, monuments, and so forth', merely as a fancy stunt. One of these is W. C. Strothers, who hails from Wilson County, North Carolina. In 1918 he was doing about three fancy climbs a week, and averaging 100 dollars a climb. His method of going up a sky-scraper was by grasping the win--dow cornices and ornamental ledges and forking up the face of the building from point to' point. Another competitor in the same line was Harry H. Gardiner, of Houston, Texas. One of his feats was tp climb up the face of - the Houston “Chronicle” bu’lding of twenty -stories, and ove’’ two hundred feet in height, with nothing to aid him beyond his feet and hands. Whether these men are still alive I do not. know, but on the face of things I should say the probabilities are that they are either dead or in retirement from the “human fly” business.