Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1873-01-22

CEli Perkins In the N. Y. Commercial Ad-
vertiser.l
While in Rochester, 1 met Mr.. Heb
bard, an old resident of Genesee Coun-
ty, who saw Sam Patch make his ia
nous Jump of Genesee Falls, thirty
or forty years ago. He says thatjump
day was a great day In Rochester.
The people gathered for miles around
to see this intermittent American
jumper as he performed his last feat,
/ shouldn't say intermittent jumper,
for Sam was all the time as crazy to
jump down a waterfall, as George
Francis, our chronic candidate for
the Presidency, is crazy to run for the
White House.
Sam Patch had previously jumped
over Niagara. Then, saying ''sOme
things can be done as well as Others,n
he slashed around like Sergeant Bates
through the Western part Of the State
to back up his proverb. Before his
last jump he boughta big black bear
of a circus man, and led him over the
turnpike to Rochester.
Sam was a queer philosopher. He
had a theory that each new genera
ton had more knowledge and could
do greater deeds than its predecessor.
He often said that his father knew
more than his grandfather, and that
he knew more than his father.
E"Why, thunderatiOn ! Sam, BY your
srguefying, your grandfather must
have been a darned fool" %interposed
a bystander; but he only turned
around and commenced talking about
something else.
Sam was a great talker. His tongue
was always 'On the rum and his b1dy
'On the jump > and all for notoriety.
One day, when he was a little boy,
his mother, who lived in . clearing
near BrOekpOrt, was speaking Of
Sans %precocify,
why" said she, sour Sam can
read the Bible like a spelling-book5
repeat the eatechism frUm ind to ind,
and slice apples a. well as his mother
YES said Sam ; "an' YESTERDAY I
licked Bill Sim son, thrOwed the kit
tens in the well, ana jumped off the
tue saw mill into the fume."
Sam himself said he once came
home tight, washed the face of the
cock, and then wound up the baby
and set it forward fifteen minutes.
but aOOuL the great Jump.
The morning of the day came Sam
had arrived in town with the black
bear, and the crowd rushed into Ro-
chester from miles around. Twelve
o'clock was the hour to jump-tO Jump
q hundred feet downtown the terri
BILE fall into the boiling caldron below.
A staging had been built out over the
water, and Sam appeared on the plat
form dressed in q sailors fancy Jacket.
His friends now took up a collection
on shore, while Sam swung his hat,
and said after jumping himself, he
would return and throw the bear over.
Then, amid a death-like stiffness. he
ran a few steps and gave one leap into
the air and fell, cutting the mist ike
a lead sinker, two hundred feet into
the seethIng whirlpool. As he left
the staging his body assumed an OBJ
lique position, his head foremost, but
above his feet. AS he struck the wa
ter there was a dreadful silence, while
the populace awaited with choking
breath his reappesranee. One min
ute-twO minutes three minutes
and no signs of the daring jumper.
Then the people sent up a loud wall
a long murmur of sorrow.
This was the end OF Sam Patch.
They say he had been drinking dur.
ing the morning, and failed to keep
his feet together and his body peTpen.
dicular, as on previous occasions. Sc
when he struck the water the breath
left his body and he was knocked
~senseless. a month or so afterwarc
they found his body away down be-
low Rochester, drifted upon the rocks
He never returned to throw in the
bear, or claim the money collected.
I believe IN the doctrine Of trans.
migration of souls, but on looking Al
the almanac nobody was born during
the whole of that fatal day but Georg'
Francis Train.