Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1886 — SHOT NIAGARA’S RAPIDS. [ARTICLE]

SHOT NIAGARA’S RAPIDS.

C. D. Graham, in a ' Vessel, Floats Through Nlag- ’ ara’s Whirling WatenApUninjured He Is Eeleased at a Point live Mile* Below the Starting Place.

[Buffalo dispatch.] Very few of the thousands of persons who visited Niagara Falls to-day had any idea that another adventurous man would attempt to the whirlpool rapids, in which Captain Webb lost his life, For some tilde past C. D. Graham has been making preparations for the attempt, but few persons really believed that his courage would hold out long enough for him to make it. Such, however, was not the case, and at about four o’clock this afternoon Graham started bn Lis perilous voyage, which he successfully accomplished. Gralinm Jwl told’ Mr. Porter all about his plans,"nd related that be would carry them out at the time he did, biit, requested that the time be not given in publishing the article, for fear that the authorities would prevent him in his purpose. Accordingly very few were among the spectators. Graham kept the cask in which he intended to make his trip in a saloon in this city. About 11 o’clock last night he loaded it in a wagon, and, accompanied by several friends, started for the falls. They arrived there about 4 o’clock this morning, and unload< d- the cask at a point on the American side of the river below the falls and about 300 rods above the cantilever bridge. A policeman arrested him on suspicion of being a Tonawanda horsethief, but his Buffalo friends secured his release on bail. When everything was ready Graham got into the barrel and closed the manhole at the top. At this point of the river the current is very slight. A small boat towed the cask out into tbe

river to a point where the current would scatch it, and where Graham Was started on what might have turned out to be his trip to eternity. The towing process took only a few minutes, and then the stream caught the cask and started.it toward the whirlpool. At first it moved slowly down, then faster and faster, until the mad current dashed it on with its full force. The cask bounded up and down over the great waves and several times turned a complete somersault, but the wider portion remained uppermost, although it turned around like a top. The cask kept pretty well in the center of the river until it reached the whirlpool, when it struck a strong side current and was carried swiftly through, reaching the waters beyond in safety. From here the journey was comparatively quiet. The cask was picked up at Lewiston, about five miles below the starting point, and Graham crawled out of the barrel with only a slight bruise on his arm. He remarked: “When I struck the eddies it was one continued round of -jerks, but I am not hurt a bit.” Graham is a native of Philadelphia, thirty-three years old, and a cooper by trade. He is a poor man, and did this thing for glory. The cask is 7 feet long, 33 inches in diamer at the widest portion. 23 inches at the top. and 18 inches at the bottom. It is bound aronnd with iron hoops which weigh 250 pounds. The ballast which was attached to the ca=k to keep it in position, weighs 240 pounds. Graham will probably repeat the trip. He says he will yet go over Horse Shoe Falls.