Show Hear as a Steeple Climber fSan Francisco Argonaut Twenty years ago Lafcadio Hearn was a reporter on the staff of a Cincinnati Cincin-nati newspaper One day a famous steeple climber was going to scale the spire of the cathedral to repair the cross that topped the spire 200 feet above the sidewalk The afternoon he first scaled the spire thousands of people peo-ple watched him breathlessly as he V slowly made his way up the outside of the steeple Of course h6 was interviewed inter-viewed and he said boastlngly chat the task was so easy that he could just as well carry a man up on his back That noon Hearn said timidly to his city editor that he had read of the steeple climbers offer and would be glad to ascend j as-cend the spire on his back The editor tried to point out to Hearn the peril of the thing but he would not listen i Finally the steeple climber and Henna arranged their end of the feat At the appointed time Hearn mounted the steeple climbers shoulders and the dizzy journey began Tens of thousands ot people watched the foolhardy pair I At last the cross was reached and Hearn left his perch on the climbers shoulders The mob In the street below cheered and then the two men returned to the ground safely Ream went back to the office and sat down and wrote two columns of a story describing his sensations and the glories of the view V he had obtained from the steeple cop Such a glowing description of a city seen from a great height has never been read before nor since The most interesting thing about it was the fact that Hearn was sp nearsighted he could not see five feat beyond the tip of his nos i |