The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1875-03-19
NIAGiRA'S TEMPTATION.
The Suicides Of the Great Waterfall.

HepWorth Dixon, III the LlNeTpoOi
Mercury, says: The sombre aspects Of
Niagara charm all young and sentimen-
tai hearts, tender and romantic melan-
choly being the chosen property Of youth.
Niagara is the pilgrimage of genius,
Mount Vernon the pilgrimage OF pat
riotism, and Santiago the pilgrimage Of
superstition. At Niagara happy lovers
breathe their VOWS and pledge their
troih, invoking the lonely woods, the
lashing waters and rising clouds of
spray, as witnesses of their burning love
less swains and maidens, crossed in their
affections, blighted in their prospects,
wander by the isles and banks for one
last hour of bliss, and then, with arms
entwined and hearts inseparable, go
headlong over. Not long ago young man
came across from the American side ac-
conpanied by pretty girl and by lit
tie child. lie hired boat not far above
the rapids, put the lady and the child
into the stern, ard throwing his oars in
to the boat pushed off into the stream.
An old boatman warned him 10 beware
of going out too far. The young man
smiled and nodded, but pushed straight
out into the food. At once the boat
man saw that he had lost control Of his
little craft, and shouted to him eagerly
10 edge about, as he was running with the
rush. The rover raised an oar in an
swer to his cries; the shaft was snapped
across-but whether done byaccident or
design, the old man could not gay. "God
help youl" sighed the boatman; in a mo-
ment they were gone. When friends
came to see the bodies, II was found to
be 4 case of passion and despair. Low
ing each other madly, they had. fed
from home and parents who opposed
their union; they had sought Niagara,
the cure Of disappointed and distracted
love; and in these waters they had found
their everlasting rest.
From Table rock toward Lake Ontario
sweeps a chasm for many miles, through
which the rapids race with 4 velocity to
make the eddies Of the Danube at the
Iron Gates seem tame, the whirlpools of
the Neva round the rock Of ScblusseI
com mon-place. This chasm is the "a
vosite grave Of hapless lovers and de-
/ spairing maids. The mighty fssure has
eaten ont, the teeth Enawing deeper in
the rock from age to age. No man has
vet surveyed this bed and told us how
descending water plunge. You dare not
/ push your boat into the foam. But on
the outer edge of these great circles yon
may drop your line, hundred feet, two
hundred feet, and find no bottom. Many
persons dive into the deep, bnt never
rise again to tell the tale. Their dive
is taken once for all The bodies Of the
dead are rarely found. Some months
/ ago, 4 lady came alone to hotel on the
| American side-a pretty woman, young
and we'll attired, who gave her
name as the wifi of merchant in Chica-
go. For day or two she roamed about
the falls, the cataracts and the river
banks. No one noticed her, for pretty
women are seen at every turn, and at
/ Niagara every one roams about the falls,
the cataracts and the river! In the
evening of the third day she was missed
at her hotel. 4 guide had seen a wo-
man fling herself into the torrent from
bridge on one of the sister isles, but
/ whether she was drowned or not he conld
notEay. A telegram was sent to Chica-
/ 60; and, by noon of the second dav, a
man arrived, who said he was the lady's
husband. The guide could not assure
him that the lady missing from the ho-
/ tel was the woman he had seen spring
from the bridge. He had never noticed
her before. The lady from Chicago
might have simply crossed the bridge.
| When high rewards were offered for the
body, men who knew ever, stone and
/ gully III the ravine as they knew the
/ logs and ladders Of their own shanties,
searched through every crevice in the
rocks, but not trace Of the lost woman
could they find, and the disconsolate
widower had to leave Niagara without
securing legal evidence that his wife was
dead.
Too often, it is thought the motive of
/ suicide Is little more than the weird and
solemn tempting of the fall itself A
/ lady came one day, 10 Clifton, from a
/ town on Lake Ontario, accompanied by
/ her mother and her child. She walked
about the village, stood on Table rock,
| listened to the boom, admired the buffa-
| loes and fed the bears, like other idIers
on the spot, and seemed as happy as her
child, to whom these sounds and sights
were new. As they were looking at a
shop window she turned toward the wa
ter, gazed at the falling sheet an instant,
slipped away from her companions, ran
to the waters edge, at Cedar place and
sprang into the food. A cry for help
was raised. Some guides were near at
hand with ropes and other gear, and one
of them, grappled safely by the waist,
plunged after her, and by n daring ef-
fort caught her as she rolled among the
rocks, and carried her back to land un-
hurt. For some time she was speechless,
but on coming to her senses she told her
mother that her husband had been cross
with her. that morning, wanting her to
take a holiday when she had no mind
for it; that she was just little fidgety;
and that on seeing the water flow so
smoothly down, and look so lovely as it
fell, she saw pleasant way Of ending all
her worries. The water tempted her. Yet
she was glad they had caught her in the
rapids. For, from the moment she be-
gan Ia glide, helpless waif, the waters
lost their power-the romance of her life
flashed upon her brain-her husbands
trust, her happy home. her parents dot
ing and her children's lovel The heart
cried out for life-for one more trial of
her duty. She was saved. Next
year abe came to Clifton with her child
to look at the ledge from which she had
sprang, and thank the guards once more
for having saved her life. She never
spoke of the affair again, but every sum
mer she returns to Niagara, and those
who know her notice that she always
fingers, for n moment. at the ledge, alb
sorbed and grave, as though her heart
was beating with an inarticuIate PRAYER.