Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 January 1906 — STORY OF NIAGARA FALLS. [ARTICLE]

STORY OF NIAGARA FALLS.

Great Changes Noted Since the Dayi of Da Salle, Ita Discoverer. Niagara Falls was discovered by La Salle, who became .aware of its presence while trying to paddle a canoe up the, Niagara river from Lake Ontario. Finding the current of the falls too swift to ascend, he gave up the attempt and constructed the first boat ever built in the United States a little above, the falls. He remained in the vicinity of Niagara several months and came away without having bought a single souvenir postal card or having patronized a hackman, forming a record that has never been equaled. At the time Niagara was discovered it was in a wild and uncivilized state. Hotel accommodations were v£ry poor and the man who tried to wade over to Goat Island to admire the view was very likely to be fished out of tho whirlpool rapids with a broken leg. Shortly after the revolutionary war, however, Niagara was captured by the hackmen and has remained in captivity ever since. It has been bridged, tunneled, navigated, swam, tightroped and gone over in a barrel. For 25 cents one may put on a rubber suit and go down behind it and feel its ribs. For 50 cents one may charter an automobile and ramble all around its awful jaws, puffing gasoline smoke in its face. Once the Indians fell on their faces before It and worshiped it. Now the paleface rides up through the gorge in a trolley car, with his feet on the seat ahead, and kicks because there isn’t a sign in the whirlpool rapids. Once La Salle gazed on it in awe and called it the mightiest work of nature. Now the school teacher comes from Peoria, 111., on a $7.50 excursion and throws ham sandwiches into it as a small boy throws peanuts to an elephant. It is effete, downtrodden and dejected. It has sat for its picture 9,000,000 times and 100,000 brides have dabbled their rosy fingers in its awful maw and have murmured, “How sweet!” It Is as tame as a caged lion and the “Maid of the Mist” puts it through its tricks a dozen times a day.—Council Bluffs Nonpareil.