The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1874-06-05
THE HAWAIIAN DIVERS.

Sometimes the native children
fix q long pole so as to project
from a bank over deep water;
along this they chase each other
to the Outermost end, leaping in
regular succession, into the water.
Leaping from high perpendicular
cliffs, is a favorite and daring
sport with the men. They choose
q place where the water is not less
than fifteen or twenty feet in depth
at the foot of the cliff; then TAX
ing rousing run, to get fairly
under way-like Washington Try
ing's Dutchman, who started to
jump over the mountain-they
bound far into the air from the
edge of the cliff. AS the leaper
falls from that dizzy height-some-
times q hundred feet by measure
ment-toward the water, lac bonds
himself almost double, as in want,
on muscular play; but just before
striking the water he partially
straightens himself, so that his
whole body is slightly curved for
ward at the moment of the plunge,
and the feet are, perhaps, foot in
advance Of 4 perpendicular line
let fall from the head. He strikes
the water without a splash, enter
ing it with quick dull "chuck"
that a smooth pebble makes when
thrown forcibly into the water, and
at an angle with the surface so
nicely calculated that he is actual
ly brought to the surface again by
the momentum of the fall. With
his body curved as l have describ-
ed, he shoots through the arc of a
circle under the water, and after
two or three seconds comes up,
feet foremost. The first thing you
see of him is his toes, emerging
from the water, fifteen or twenty
feet in front of the place where Ire
went under. No athletic feat more
daring and beautiful.
The sensations experienced by
one who falls from a height have
not, l think, been described in
print, a singular good fortune
having made the writer of this ar
ticle an expert in the Hawaiian
manner, he is able to give some
account of them. Until you are
Thoroughly practised in the leap,
you have decided inclination to
think twice about the matter be-
fore you risk it. You first dive
at the foot of the cliff, and satisfy
yourself that there is sufficient
depth of water. You watch one
after another of your companions
as they bound away in long para.
bolic curves from the edge of the
cliff; but it requires some nerve &c
throw yourself from high prec.
ipiee into midair. The solid
ground seems q much more com
Portable place. At last nervine
yourself, you run and leap. In
stantly you have a feeling of float
ing rather tnan of falling-sucf
feeling, / suppose, as a bird has
when rapidly alightIBg from al
elevated fight. There is no sense
of accelerated motion as you fall
but you feel your hair blown up
ward by fierce current of air
This does not, however in tbs
. least embarrass your breathing
The notion that people have 'thei
breath taken away in falling from
a height is erroneous. In an in
slant comes the plunge; and vol
must enter the water in exactl,
the right position or it will hur
you almost like solid earth. If yol
enter it with q splash, you meet it
l resistance to suddenly, and ma,
be famed or stunned. The grea
!. leaper, Sam Patch, lost his lif
: thus. Had he possessed Haws
e lian skill and . sober head, b
E would never have lost his positio
e while falling, as in his leap &
+ Genesee Falls. Could an Icelant
D er have taught him how to com
t out toes foremost, he might has
t been alive and leaping at the pre-
+ emit day. You, visor than b
J come safely TO the surface, sWil
q ashore, and prepare for anoth1
+ leap.
Z Directions were given by u
= lUnited States Senate the 9th
day to have spot designated
!. the Capitol Grounds for Il
!. equestrian statue of GeneF
K Greene, Gin conformity with Z
: resolution of the Continental Co
= gress, passed in 1856" The
= was no occasion to hurry about
- It is not hundred years yet sin
: the resolution was passed, 81
who cares 4 continental what t
4? Continental Congress resolve
anyhow