Old Print Article: “A Maniac Gymnast,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1877)

June 24, 2010 in Old Print Articles, Urban Studies | Permalink

Doing this hurts my crazy, crazy lungs so much.

There were plenty of maniacs in New York City in 1877, but how many of them were gymnasts with lung diseases who could climb down the side of a building? An example of one such maniac is at the heart of an article in the February 27, 1887 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. An excerpt:

“A Spanish gentleman came to the New York Central office this morning and reported a wonderful feat which had been performed by his son Senor Mirande, who is a famous gymnast, as he made his escape from his house No. 340 East Fifty-sixth street, where he had been confined for some times past. It seems that some time ago he caught cold after one of his daring trapeze performances and the cold settled on his lungs.

All efforts to remove the trouble failed, and finally lung disease supervened. He has suffered much of late, being confined to his house, and for the past few days has become delirious so that he had to be watched. Last night he was worse than usual and had to be bound with ropes in his room, which was on the third floor of the house. About 1 o’clock this morning he broke the bands that held him and with a shriek that awoke all other occupants of the house made a dash for the window.

"Go away! I'll climb to the moon!" (Image by Karonen.)

In a twinkling he had gone through it, turning a somersault as he sprang, and hung to the cement by his hands, his body swinging to and fro forty feet above the sidewalk. His friends sprang to his assistance, but he shouted, ‘Go away! I’ll climb to the moon!’ Then he swayed his body with increasing rapidity and let go. A cry of horror escaped from the lips of the relatives, but he grasped the metal leader of the house, went up it hand over hand with the agility of a monkey, and suddenly plunged forward, landing upon the top of a shutter on the top floor.

Then he swung up on a fragile blind, which it was feared would be forced from its hinges by his weight, and suddenly leaping in the air grasped the gutter of the house. He ran along the edge with seeming indifference at the height at which he was performing, and then started to descend headlong the shutter of the adjoining house. Away he went, leaping from shutter to window sill, until the top of the stoop was reached. Then he slid down one of the posts to the street, along which he ran bareheaded until out of sight. His father is in the greatest distress regarding what has become of him, and a general alarm has been sent out to all stations.”

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