SLIDE TO DEATH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 October 1938, Page 8

SLIDE TO DEATH

DANCER FALLS FROM BANISTER. While 1300 dancers in 'the Empress ballroom, Sydney, were enjoying themselves recently on the fifth floor of Mark Foy’s department stores, one of them crashed to his death. The dance was held to celebrate the winning of the first grade premiership in the Rugby League competition by the Canter-bury-Bankstown team. Shortly before midnight one of the dancers, John Fitzpatrick, aged 24, apparently in a playful mood, climbed on to the banister intending to slide down merely to the next floor. A commissiohaire, realising the danger in which Fitzpatrick had placed himself by • perching over a drop of well over 60ft right down to the basement, dashed over in an effort to prevent his descent. Fitzpatrick saw him coming and the commissionaire just missed saving him by two or three inches. When he had slid down the banisters to the fourth floor, Fitz Patrick was unable to stop, overbalanced on the curve of the banister, and fell down the stairway well to the basement. He suffered terrible injuries, but never felt them, as he was instantly killed. The news was kept from the dancers and also from the girl whom Fitzpatrick had taken to the ball.