RESULTS OF A PRACTICAL JOKE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 909, 26 January 1882, Page 3

RESULTS OF A PRACTICAL JOKE.

The New Orleans Picayune gives a serious warning to practical jokers. At 2 o’clock on a recent morning a gentleman left his club in that city with a friend, and, the latter returning for his cane, the former concealed himself in the bottom of the big box that holds the balancing weight of the elevator, and is called a “lilt ease.” The triend came back and went away disgusted at finding no trace of the jolly 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 only from the outside. He laughed heartily to see the biter bit, until presently he heard a noise, which he could not misinterpret. The lift was slowly falling down from the fourth floor. He, in groping for the door, had pulled the rope which set it free. Heath stared him in the face, for that immense mass of iron wsmld inevitably crush him as flat as a pancake, and by a slow tortnre that would make dying seem, all agony of horrors. He became frantic with fear. He flung himself against the door of the Hftcase as only dispair could do ; 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 off. A physician was summoned. Consciousness was restored. The unfortunate gentleman sprang to his feet, screamed incoherently with wild gestures.. He was crazy.