The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-08-28

TIGHT ROPE WALKERS, LION tanners, BAL.
Lc0NIsTs, POLITICIANS AND OTHER MoNsrRosI-
TRs-Performances on the tight rope are
most decidedly the rage just now. Since
that venturesome Frenchman, Monsieur Blon-
din, stretched his rope across the yawning
abyss Of Niagara, imitators have sprung up
on all hands. De Lave, who perhaps ap-
proaches nearest him in professional dexterity,
has been astonishing the folks Of Rochester
with his daring feats on the tight rope over the
Genesee Falls. Two other geniuses, not French
men, but native-though not Ito the manner
born"-have got up rival imitation on small
scale, and have been showing their steadiness Of
foot and unsteadiness of mind, by walking across
rope stretched over the Erie canal at one Of
the small towns along its line. Another chap
calling himself q professor dancing masters,
BARRIERS and tight rope performers are all
profeesors) is travelling about through the
Northern portion Of the State Offering to display
his talents In the Blondin line wherever State
fair or any other cause draws together crowd
Of people; while those imitators of the great Nj.
agara original, whose ground and lofty tumblings
are done on clothes lines are beyond computation.
In fact, tight rope walking is the particular and
special mania Of the hour; and 1t will be miracle
if something disastrous does not happen to young
America in the pursuit Of this new phantasy.
The last variety Of Mons. Blondin's per-
formances Of which we have any account con-
sisted in crossing the rope with his hands and
feet manscled, and subsequently returning in
the r6le Of French cook, carrying his own stove
and fuel and culinary utensils with him, and
cooking omelets, which he lowered to an unman-
nerly crowd on board the little steamer Maid
of the Mist. So morbidly DESTROYS are people
of seeing him precipitated into the whirlpool
Of waters over which his rope is suspended, that
the same crowd witness his exhibitions day after
day; and some fends, in their eagerness to an
ticipate the ordinary course Of events, have even
cut the guys by which frmness is given to the
rope, hoping to see him stagger and fall. The
same villanous act was perpetrated on De Lave
at Rochester, and the rope oscillated 80 much in
consequence that the peril of the enterprise was
greatly augmented; but when some one told the
rope walker that Blondin was on the ground
and had promised to walk over with his boots
on If the other did not Cross there was no longer
any hesitation on his part. He set out, and did
not give the spectators the satisfaction Of wit
Messing rehearsal o. the tragedy of Sam Patch.
Blordin's next feat is to be performed at night,
and by torch light; and, of course, the risk being
10 much the greater, the spectators will be the
more numerous. We hope that their charitable
expectations will be again disappointed.
Some years ago Herr Rininger, predecessor
Of Blondin's, made tour through the South aud
West, which was abruptly terminated at Natchez
by falling from his rope into the Mississippi.
One Of the principal attractions in the exhi-
billions Of Van Amburgh was the expectation
that some day, when he put his head in
the lions mouth, the lion might take it
into his head to keep 1t there. One eccentric
individual followed the lion tanner from city to
city, never missing one Of his exhibitions, in the
hope of being In at the death. He was never
grati6ed, however, although one Of Van Am
hnreh's 'rnitatnrs closed his exhibitions one day
in that manner. Having put MS mead in the rlvn's
mouth, and feeling that he could not get it out
again, he asked the audience whether the animal
wagged bis tail. The answer was in the afirma.
tive. "Then it is all up with me-" said he; and
so it was. Herr Driesbach, another celebrity in
that ine used to take all sorts of freedoms with
ferocious animals, but occasionally, with all his
power over them, their natural ferocity broke
out. People always 60 to see these exhibitions
in the expectation Of witnessing tragedy.
1t was so, also, with that distinguished
American-just mentioned Sam Patch People
focked to see him taking his airy leaps into the
seething waters Of the Niagara and Genesee,
expecting that each leap would be his last; and
that expectation was finally realized. Imitato,s
Of Sam jump periodically off the High Bridge at
Harlem and from other eminences; and the pro-
liability is that each will, like him, some day fail
to come up to time. Strange to say, the genius
that walked over the Niagara river, above Goat
Island, on stills, last fall, has not yet had any
imitator; and it is now a mooted question
whether the feat was ever performed at all.
Lately, we have seen in Virginia the fatal re-
suit Of fancy to domesticate rattlesuakes. One
Of these reptiles, pet, sunk his fangs in the arm
Of the experimenter, and the poison did its work
Aerostation, or the navigation of the air in
balloons, is also one of the modes much in
vogue at the present day for acquiring notoriety
and shortening existence. La Mountain and Wise
having made that wonderful voyage from st,
Louis to Lake Ontario, and escaped by q
miracle, professors of that science are initiating
their gas bags all over the country, and threat
ening to take transatlantic voyages, regardless
Of the tragical ends Of so many aeronauts, from
Icarus down to Thurston, who was carried up
by the heels, and whose body was found some
months afterwards on one of the Western