Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1874 — Vanquished By a Cat. [ARTICLE]

Vanquished By a Cat.

Mr. Stebbins Peer, the funambulist, or rope-walker, who has a cable stretched across the Niagara River, just below the new suspension bridge, and gives exhibitions of his skill in rope-walking, came near meeting with an accident the other day, which, but for his agility, would undoubtedly have ended his career as a rope-walker. He conceived the brilliant idea of taking a cat on the rope and starting it on ahead of him, in order to have two sensations at the same time. When about thirty feet from the shore he set the cat on the rope, expectjing, of course, that the feline would show how the thing was done as well as he could do it himself. But the cat was not at all anxious for funambulism, and, instead of making a bee-line across, turned upon Peer, climbed upon him and fastened his teeth in his shoulder. In his efforts to disengageXhe cat he missed his footing, and had to drop his balance-pole, which fell on the rocks below and was broken. Peer himself scrambled along the rope back to the shore the best way he could. He succeeded in reaching terra firma, but the exhibition of the day was brought to a close, as a funambulist without a balance-pole is of little account. The pole was subsequently recovered and spliced. Peer will walk again, but will not be likely to take any cats along.— Kingston (Can.) Whig.