Show PLOT TO PLUNGE PAINTERS FROM A HIGH BUILDING COWARDLY ATTEMPT TO WRECK SCAFFOLD BY THE USE OF ACID PlttBburg What at first wa thought to have been an accident which almost resulted disastrously to many pedestrians In Fifth avenue has turned out to have been a dastardly attempt at murder presumably the work of a fiend or Insane man But for the twisting of a guy rope on a scat fold and tho presence of mind of the three men working on tho Hotel Antler Ant-ler they and possibly some of the pass o crsby four stories below them would have been crushed to death A reward of 1250 has been offered for information loading to tho arrest and conviction of the person or persons per-sons who put acid on tho scaffold I I r h r I Piers I n perh J y ropes which it Is claimed parted one ropo as neatly as if it had been cut with akhlfe when the weight of three men was placed upon It The contractor found evidences of acid having been applied to the part of tho rope which broke This he thInks wile done by some person tryIng try-Ing to kill all the men at work when the scaffold would fall Ho does not suspect who could havo placed tho acid on the rope which for several nights han ben put Into a barrel and allowed to remain standing on the sidewalk In front of the Hotal Antler Whoever applied the acid to tho rope did so In one spot only so that It would require some title weight to pull It apart after it had destroyed tho ma nlla tissue of the rope The accident happened shortly afternoon after-noon when the three embloyes John Thompson Herbert Clams and William Blackburn were preparing tq raise the scaffold upon which they wore working work-ing cleaning the granite front of the hotel from the fourth story to tho fifth The rope on the right hand aide of the scaffold parted near the scaffold scaf-fold without warning and Thompson who bad been pulling on the guy rope on that side just tightened his hold and hung suspended In the air as tho scaffold loll from him Clqm lAnd Blackburn with rare presence of mind ont oopposite end of the swinging ladder i each grabbed as tho other end dropped onp catching catch-ing the scaffold and the other tho rapes on the other sldo Tho guy rope twisted and held tho scaffold from falling fall-ing clear and each of the men clung desperately while the crowd below scattered and gathered on tho other side of tho street expecting any minute min-ute to boo the men drop to certain death < Contractor Smith was eating in the hotel when ho heard a cry that tho scaffold had broken He raced up the stairs until he reached the fifth floor and swinging out of the window ho I grabbed tho suspended buy rope and slid down to where ho could release this rope and allow the swinging ladder lad-der to descend to tho pavement |