It is pleasant in a week dreary with the dust
raised by the scales of the Tapers and Tadpoles, to be able to record a really heroic deed. On Monday, a labourer named Arthur Rutter had occasion to go down a well connected with a sewage-pumping station at East Ham to carry out certain clean sing operations. The descent was accomplished by an
iron ladder. He had barely reached the bottom when it was noticed that he disappeared into the water. A man named Digby, who was on the spot, at once came to the rescue, and went down the ladder. He also succumbed to the gas and disappeared. Mr. Mills, the chief engineer, apprised of what had happened, then went through this veritable gate of death. His fate was that of the others. A fourth man, Durrant, followed in his footsteps and died also. A fifth man, Jones, then faced a risk which the bravest man might have refused as useless. Though he was not actually suffocated, the gas having presumably become less deadly in its nature, he was unable either to help the others or to get back himself. It was then that a workman named Herbert Worman offered to go down, and though he was well aware of what was before him. Four times he tried to descend, and on the fourth was able to get Jones to the surface alive, though in so terrible a state of prostration that he died the same evening. Later, Worman succeeded in bringing to the surface three of the bodies. We shall not try to put into words what we feel of the five men who thus one by one and alone, faced death in its most appalling form. The rush to carry a breach is child's play to such heroism, for then men fight a visible enemy shoulder to shoulder on a splendid theatre and with much to gain. Here there was nothing but duty in its barest, grimmest form. We trust that the subscription which is being raised by Mr. John Brooks (7 The Broadway, East Ham, Essex), will not only provide enough for the families of the dead men, but give Worman no grudging reward. It is to be noted that he was a private individual, and not a fellow workman of the five men he went down to save.
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