Rensselaer Gazette, Volume 3, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1859 — A Fearful Performance. [ARTICLE]

A Fearful Performance.

On Saturday night, a little after eleven, o'clock, subsequent to the play, the curtain rose at the Metropolitan, and exhibited M Blondin, standing on the lower part of the rope which led from the hack part of the stage of the Metropolitan up to the roof of the theater in the third tier—an elevation of fifty feet.—at an angle of forty-four degrees, with Col. Lum Smith soundly and firmly perched upon his shoulders. M. Blondin had his heaviest balance pole, and commenced his perilous walk without the slightest hesitation, treading firmly and confidently on the rope, as though he had no extra weight to bear. He walked somewhat slower than his wont, but gained the third tier, amid the cheers and huzzas ot the whole audience, who were breathless from the time he started from the stage till he reached his destination. Arriving there with his burden, he waited about three minutes and then commenced his still more perilous return. This he accomplished without accident, though several times he pretended to lose his footing, sending cold chills up and down the breasts of every soul present, and we opine alarming Col. Lum more than standing in the middle of a flame and holding the pipe of an engine. We iiave seen him scorching from head to foot, when he had apparently more nerve than on this occasion. The feat, wonderful as it was, was perfectly performed, and it is more extraordinary from the fact that while M. Blondin weighs only one hundred and thirty pounds, the weight ol the man he carried was one hundred and sixty-five pounds. We think this a greater performance than crossing the chasm of Niagara.— Buffalo Republic. No news of importance from the seat of war.