Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1913 — Call of Niagara Falls [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Call of Niagara Falls

THE ordinary visitor to Niagara finds the excursion to the Cave of the Winds quite sensational enough for his peace of mind. With proper care the trip is perfectly safe, but there is one moment of the journey when the mist and spray from the falls blot out from sight his nearest companion, which gives the man of average nerve as keen a thrill as he cares for. His verdict when he is “through” is that he is glad to have done it once, but will be content not to attempt it again. There is i certain temperament, however, which the very sight of these appalling Waters seems to goad to a frenzy of mad adventure. Some time ago, for instance, a man who normally followed the unheroic occupation of keeping a restaurant, went over the Horseshoe falls in a steel barrel and was safely fished out afterward, having suffered no damage but a broken leg. This act of foolhardiness at any rate cannot be charged to youthful rashness, for the man was in his seventieth year, nor can it be explained by ignorance of what such a feat must involve, for he had already made the passage of the seething rapids some distance below in similar fashion. In some of the most remarkable feats of which Niagara has been the scene the fascination of the encounter itself has been seconded by a certain commercial instinct. The performances of Blondin, we may be sure, were shfedwly calculated with a view to future box office receipts. In 1859 and 1860 he Crossed the falls several times on a tight rope three and a quarter inches in diameter, 1,100 feet long and 160 feet above the water. He was not satisfied with the mere promenade, but would raise the hair of the spectators—sometimes there would be as many as, 25,000 watching him —by all manner of freakish variations. Perhaps he would make the journey blindfold, or he would trundle a wheelbarrow in front’ of him, or he would appear burdened with heavy shackles from head to foot in the character of a. Siberian slave, or he would carry a cooking stove and stop to make an omelette on the way, or he would stand on his head when half way across. Once he carried a man on his back and the uneasy movements of his passenger, so it is reported, drew from him the threat: "If you don’t sit quiet I shall have to put you down.” The late king of England, then prince of Wales, was among the spectators one day when Blondin crossed on stilts, and in spite of the success this feat declined the acrobat’s .offer to take him over. Gorge Below the Falls. Since Blondin’s day there have been several ‘‘equilibrist” exhibitions at Niagara, but no imitator has quite rivaled the example of daring set by the matter of the profession. Perhaps the nearest approach to his triumphs was that of Dixon in 1890. He crossed the river below the falls on a threequarter inch wire cable, and in one. of his feats lay for a time with his back on the wire. But, startling as such performances may be, presumably they do not surpass either in actual risk or in trial of the nerves some of the ordinary feats of acrobats in the circus or even the dally round and common task of steeplejacks and other useful persons whose work requires a cool head and a sure step. A quite different kind of problem Is that of “shooting Niagara,” either at the falls themselves or at the rapids Every one has seen pictures of the falls and can form some conception of what it must mean to take the drop over the cataract The Niagara rapids are less familiar, so a brief topographical note may be helpful. One set of rapids occurs about the fads, just before the waters gather

themselves for their great leap. But the more notable series is further down. Below the falls the river moves sleepily along for a while, but presently it is compressed into a narrow gorge through which it makes its descent to Lake Ontario. This sudden narrowing into a defile whose bed is studded with rocks churns the immense volume of water into a mass of turbulent waves, where the main current, traveling at 30 miles an hour, is swung backward and forward and from side to side like a drunken thing. These whirlpool rapids, as they are called, empty the stream into the whirlpool itself, from which it has still to surge through the Devil’s Hole rapids, no less triumphant, before it once more becomes navigable near Lewiston. The Whirlpool rapids were safely threaded in 1861 by the Maid of the Mist, but the ordeal turned the captain of the steamer into an old man. Many years later a man named Perry made the same trip in a lifeboat. A rival, R. W. Flack, challenged him to a race over the course, and lost his life .in a preliminary rehearsal. But the most tragic story Niagara has to tell is that of Captain Matthew Webb. The son of an English country doctor, he entered the mercantile marine as a lad, but before he was thirty he abandoned a seafaring life to become a professional swimmer. In 1875 he swam from Dover to Calais. In 1883, though warned that physically he was not what he had been, he made the desperate resolve to swim the Whirlpool rapids. In describing his plans he explained that when he found the water very bad he would go under, and would remain under until compelled to come up for breath. He Intended at the whirlpool to strike out with all his strength to keep out of the suck hole in the center. “My life," he added, “will then depend upon my muscles and my breath, with a little touch of science behind them.” On the afternoon of July 24 he took tne plunge from a small boat. On entering the whirlpool rapids he was almost turned over by the force of the water, but he recovered himself, and in about five minutes he had traversed the mile and a quarter from the old suspension bridge to the entrance of the whirlpool. Here he seemed for a moment to be doing well. Then be threw up his arms and disappeared. Swimming Whirlpool Rapids.

In July, 1890, John Soules was more fortunate than Captain Webb, for his defeat came earlier. While he was in the whirlpool rapids the breakers dashed him against the rocks, and he was washed ashore, badly bruised, before reaching the whirlpool. Other swimmers who have attempted the passage have hesitated to -trust their unaided strength and skill. W. J. Kendall, a Boston policeman, got through in 1886, but he wore a cork vest He reported at the end of his journey that he had found his swimming abilities useless. The current took him into its main eddy and sucked him down like a flash. When he reached the spot where Webb lost his life the water went from under him and a wave knocked him unconscious. He was seen to be shot out from the pool 50 feet from the center. On regaining consciousness he swam ashore, thus avoiding being dashed down the devil’s hole rapids. On Septemper 7, 1889, Steven Brodie, who some time before had jumped off Brooklyn bridge, descended the falls themselves, clad in an India rubber suit surrounded with steel bands and' thickly padded. About a week later another adventurer, Walter Campbell, wearing a cork jacket, equalled Kendall's feat, and even excelled It, for he made his way as far down nt Lewiston.

CAVE OF THE WINDS