Ogden Standard-Examiner | 1927-07-29 | Page 8 | Sits on Pillar for 37 Years

I SITS ON PILLAR I FORBEARS FOR 37 YEARS flagpole ole Sitters Must Go Long Ways Wass to Beat Record CHICAGO July 30 By By The As M- Associated sedated Press CVen Even the of flagpole Ole sitting repeats repeat itself When Shipwreck Kelly picked out the tallest standard In Newark N. N J. J and ascended it to establish a world record for lor stop non-stop flagpole sitting he thought he had devised de an entirely new Invitation to fame And when Joe Powers set out to break reak Kellys Kelly's record on a staff feet above Chicago's pavements he eyed Shipwrecks mark as the one he had to beat bea t. t IS 15 CENTURIES AGO They have learned too late that the he time all record for lofty perching was made 1500 years ago and that beside its 11 year 37 duration their own records look puny Indeed Simeon a monk made in the filth fifth century the record for endurance sit alt sitting sItting ting which still stands only only he used a pillar instead of a flagpole and he undertook the feat not for the vaude nude vaudeville vaudeville ville contracts 3 and advertising which lured Kelly and Powers but for tor re- re religious religious reasons Even more mare people gazed on Simeon than han peered at his modem emulators and among the crowds Simeon won converts ANOTHER 33 YEARS His world record has been periled only once A fellow tellow named nam d David approached it it but lasted lasted only 33 years rears on top of his column So many tried the feat that they became a cult called Anchorites or Simeon but sitting pillar-sitting became a nuisance In the tenth century and laws were passed against it Powers displays a trace of pro- pro professional scorn as he observes that Simeon's perch was but 60 80 feet high a a. scant tenth as tall as his own But Just the same he adds Im glad Im I'm doing my act in Chicago and ind not under the blazing sun of ol Constantinople Constan