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 The Chronicle welcomes you online! Please feel free to respond to these editorials or letters to the editor by sending your letters to the editor.

We condense letters; most, as published, won't exceed 300 words. A letter must include the writer's name and city, which will be published, and an address and telephone number for verification, which will not be published. Writers may be limited to one letter every 30 days. Open letters, letters to third parties and poetry are not considered. Letters from people living outside the Chronicle's circulation area usually are not considered.

Recalls 1921 climb of 'human spider'

Web posted September 19, 1999

Editor, The Chronicle

Perhaps there are some in Augusta today who watched Bill Strother, the ``human spider,'' as he scaled the Lamar Building in 1921. Certainly all who lived here at the time would have heard of his dangerous climb. Not long afterward, he fell off a building while making another risky climb. Mr. Strother was rushed to the nearest hospital. He not only recovered, but he fell in love with his nurse. They married and she saw to it that that was the end of his climbing career.

They settled in Petersburg, Va., and opened a glorified boarding house, called ``The Strother House,'' serving military personnel from Camp Lee during World War II. They had no trouble keeping it filled to capacity, with every rank and grade from private to general.

My husband and I felt most fortunate to get a room there for the duration of his temporary duty assignment.

The Strother House had an excellent dining room -- breakfast and dinner -- and who was the cook? It was the former ``human spider'' and Hollywood stuntman -- Bill Strother.

Jocelyn Cobb, Augusta