A crowd gathered beneath the old Chicago post office, staring upward in alarm as a young woman made her way across the icy, sloping roof.
Above her, clinging to a tottering flagstaff, was a weather-beaten remnant of the American flag that had been blackened by soot, torn by storms, and reduced to little more than its field and a few frayed ribbons of stripes.
The building was soon to be handed over for wrecking, but Miss Bertha L. Duppler was determined that the flag would not be abandoned. She had raised it there herself.
And so, despite the shouts from policemen and the warnings of frightened onlookers below, Miss Duppler climbed across the frozen roof to rescue what remained of Old Glory.
Rescued Tattered Old Glory
To rescue a tattered remnant of the American flag, its colors nearly obliterated by the soot, sleet, and rain, its field alone intact and fringed with a few frayed ribbons of what was once the stripes, Miss Bertha L. Duppler, assistant secretary to Postmaster Busse of Chicago, climbed over the ice and snow clad roof of the old Chicago post office on Michigan Avenue and took it, halyards and all, from the tottering flagstaff.
Every step over the sloping roof was fraught with danger. One false step and Miss Duppler would have fallen and perhaps been dashed to death on the cement pavements around the building before help could reach her. But the plucky young woman had put that flag there herself, and she herself would rescue it.
The building is to be formally turned over to the S. Krug Wrecking and Iron Company by the government within a few days, and Miss Duppler was determined that the flag must not go with it.
The sight of the young woman on the top of the old building immediately attracted a crowd. Policemen called to the woman to come down. Excited men and women attempted to warn her of her danger.
Miss Duppler turned around, gazed at the crowd for a moment, smiled, and then started on her journey. Slowly and cautiously she went up the incline, carefully picking each step. Occasionally she turned about to reassure the crowd with a smile and then resume her labors.
Once, when near to the flagstaff, she slipped back a few steps. The crowd yelled and men ran to the building to catch her if she fell off the roof. She regained her balance with some difficulty, turned again and smiled on the crowd, made a final dash for the staff and reached it.
With her arms about the staff, she rested for a few moments, then untied the halyards and drew what remained of “Old Glory” down.
Steadying herself against the pole, she waved the tattered emblem three or four times, while the crowd cheered in admiration of her pluck, and then picked her way back across the roof.
The Wisconsin Weekly Advocate. Milwaukee, Wis. March 1, 1906.
