Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1876 — Daring Feats at Niagara. [ARTICLE]

Daring Feats at Niagara.

The San Francisco Chronicle gives an interesting account of those who nave, in various ways, risked their life for the edification of a multitude at Niagara Falla, beginning with Bam Patch. It says: Bam Patch appeared upon his platform, and waving bis hands to the spectators, gave a graceful leap into vacancy. He descended feet foremost and disappeared beneath the placid surface of an eady below. A moment afterward he reappeared, striking out for the shore a few yard! distant, wbich'he reached none the worse for the plunge. A few weeus subsequently Patch attempted a repetition of the feat from the falls of Genesee River at Rochester. The conditions were much more favorable here than at Niagara, the descent being less and the water below the falls being a comparatively smooth basin of great depth. But this was the last leap of poor Patch. Whether heaviness in the head from some cause or other had disturbed his equilibrium is not stated, but it happened unfortunately that Patch was unable to maintain the perpendicular, and struck the water flat on his back. The body was recovered some days afterward, several miles down the river. As far as remembered, Niagara was devoid of any extraneous sensations, apart from the usual yearly average of harrowing accidents, romantic suicides, and heroic rescues from the time of Sam Patch’s leap to the advent of Mons. Blondin on the scene in 1858. It is true that in the interim one Morgan, a resident of New York State, who published a book purporting to unvail the secrets of Masoniy, is reputed to have departed the scene of his labors by the Niagara River route, and his disappearance caused a deep and wide-spread sensation. But nothing was publicly known of the time or manner id which his journey was accomplished. Blondin’s repertory of varied feats to maintain the interest of the public was the same as recently performed in San Francisco. His concluding feat, and by far the most thrilling of all, was the wheeling of a man across the rope in a wheelbarrow. The venturesome passenger was his agent, who was also a professional gymnast. The two were connected together by a band attached to their belts, which safeguard would have enabled theih to jump on'opposite sides of the rope and remain suspended in the event of such a course being compelled by an overpowering gust of wind or any mishap from what other cause. Nevertheless, this performance was witnessed with sensations similar to those that might be excited by the spectacle of an execution. After a dispiriting season following Blondin’s departure, from no greater attraction being offered the good people than a bare view of Niagara itself, the ravenous crew who have the management of the falls and their appurtenances succeeded in engaging another rope-walker, known as Bignor Farina, an Italian artist of Milesian extraction originally christened with the name of Welch. Farina, so-called, was a graduate of the circuses and well up in the funambulistic arts. His rope was stretched across the river about midway between the falls and the railroad suspension bridge. Farina repeated Blondin’s feats with equal ease and grace, and added some of his own specialties; but the season proved a comparative failure. At this time, funambulists had multiplied in the land and ropewalking had become the prime attraction-

at all the country fairtr. One ambitious fellow, who dubbed himself Herr Ramos, being supplanted by Farina in a coveted engagement at Niagara, opened a season below the falls of the Genesee at Rochester. Unfortunately he chose for his initiatory performance a repetition of Blondin’s famous feat of trundling a man across the rope in a wheelbarrow. The dare-devil who volunteered his valuable assistance for this exploit was a sailor. It proved admirably successful to a point about midway of the river, when the sailor, by an ill-advised effort to shift his position in the wheelbarrow, disturbed the equilibrium, and the whole establishment jumped the track. Herr Ramos caught the rope and hunk suspended with his balancing-pole attached to his belt and the Wheelbarrow slung to his neck; but the luckless mariner descended* without impediment 1 into the depths below, a distance of about ninety feet, to the surfacd of the watdr. Providentially he was too much int6xichted to suffer injury, and succeeded in gaining the shore, rather benefited than otherwise by the plunge. Ramos, after disengaging his incumbrances, was likewise successful in shinning ashore. At the close of the war the hosts of Niagara were again aroused to speculation to restore the prestige of that attractive resort and another rope-walking season was inaugurated in 1866, with Hany Leslie as the “ hero.” Leslie (George Colby) was from Troy, N. Y., a dashing, fearless young fellow of good family and education, who had adopted the calling of a gymnast and graduated from the circuses. In skill, agility and reckless daring liis feats greatly surpassed those of gymnasts who preceded him, not excepting the famous Chevalier. Leslie stretched his rope across the river about 300 feet below the great suspension bridge, at a point where the sweeping current gathers itself into the narrowest gorge of the river, and breaks into probably the most terrific rapid on the face of the earth. Such is the

resistless power of the surge that a bar of pig-iron dropped from the bridge with a wire attached, in an attempt to fathom the stream, immediately skips out upon the surface of the water far below. It is hardly possible for an ordinary mortal to comprehend the quality of nerye required for the crossing of this raging torrent on a rope. Yet Leslie performed the most difficult feats of equipoise midway of the stream. His particular ecstacy was in the execution of feats upon the trapeze of a character which seemed to seal his fate at every instant, causing ladies to faint and stern men to turn pale. The most appaling of all his performances Was a leap headlong from , the rope, secured by elastic bands attached to his ankles. A cry of horror that was heard above the roar of the torrent greeted this act, and thousands turned away from the scene, assured that all was over with the reckless fellow. This exquisite act was varied on occasions by a backttrd fall from the rope, as if by accident, while Leslie was apparently attempting some other feat. The Leslie season at Niagara was fairly successful, his weekly exhibitions attracting immense crowds which arrived by excursion trains from all directions in New York State and Canada. As the funambulistic hero of Niagara Leslie certainly won the palm for never having disappointed an audience from stress of weather. While Blondin on oneorindre occasions postponed his performances in consequence of the freshness of the zephyrs that betimes sweep down the gorge of Niagara, Leslie did. not hesitate to take the rope when the gusty blasts seemed almost sufficient to dislodge a raccoon from

his perch, and on on® occasion he nihil e his return passage in the midst of a drenching shower. Leslie met 11 * H 4e»th two years subsequent by the breaking of a trapeze, suspended from a balloon, at Charleston, 8. C. He fell from an immense altitude and was dashed to atoms. The next season at Niagara opened with a flattering announcement, based on the supposed abilities and likewise “ heroism” of a genius named George Conroy, who belonged to Buffalo, N. Y. This aspirant* for honors and currency proposed to cross the rope in the character of the American eagle, with wings extended to serve the purpose of a balancing pole. The design embodied a very patriotic fancy, and the attraction would, doubtless have drawn satisfactorily. In his preparatoiy trials, however 1 , Mr. Conroy, was not sufficiently successful to warrant the necessary contribution for a rope, etc., and so the debut ’of the American eagle on a tight-rope and his probable descent into the yeasty torrent of Niagara did not occur. But not by this discomfiture, Mr. Conroy finally gratified his ambition by Jumping from the lofty cupola of a grain elevator in Buffalo in the presence of a 'great multitude. In making the descent Conroy seemed to relax his nerve and double himself up, but when the Coroner recovered the body it was stiff enough. The last tight-rope performance at Niagara attended by the writer occurred in 1869, when Prof. Jenkins made his debut under the patronage of the railroad com|knies, advertising to cross the rope on ja velocipede. This announcement created no little sensation, the popular supposition being that something after tlie pattern of the ordinary bicycle was intended to be used in the exploit. Prof. Jenkins was a raw-boned, uncouth gentleman from one of the interior towns of Canada. His rope was stretched across the gorge at the same point where Leslie had performed, and was necessarily without guys. The so-called velocipede consisted of two deeply-grooved wheels to fit the rope, being balanced and held secure by a long iron oar with heavy iron balls at either end, suspended six feet below the rope. The “ veiocipedist” was seated on a saddle between the wheels which just cleared the rope, and governed the movements of the machine by cranks and cog-wheel gearing. The first performance attracted a large 'attendance of spectators, both on the American and Canadian banks of the river, and the general opinion pronounced the show a rank imposition. Prof. Jenkins wks so pointedly denounced by the newspaper reporters who were lured to the exhibition, that in a fit of exasperation he advertised a reward of SSOO to any reporter who would accomplish the crossing of the rope on his “go-devil.” The challenge was as promptly accepted by half a dozen reporters from different cities; but from economic motives the Professor neglected to deposit the stake, and hauled in his rope and departed. The velocipede season was thus closed with a single exhibition.