Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1875-06-16
NIAGARA's TEMPTATION.
The suIcides Of The Great waterfall

4 der ana romantic melancholy OelnR tne
chosen property of youth. Niagara is
the pilgrimage of love, as Stratford on
Avon is the pilgrimage Of genius, Mount
Vernon the pilgrimage of patriotism,
and Santiago the pilgrimage Of supersti-
ton. At Niagara the happy lovers
breathe their vows and pledge their
troth, invoking the lonely woods, the
lashing waters aud rising clouds of spray
as witnesses of their burning love and
steadfast truth At Niagara hapless
swains and maidens, crossed in their af-
fections, blighted in their prospects,
wander by the isles and banks for one
last hour Of bliss, and then. with arms
entwined and hearts inseparable, 60
headlong over.
Not long ago young man came across
from the American side accompanied by
pretty girl, and by little child. he
hired boat not far above the rapids,
put the lady into the stern, and throwing
the oars iRto the boat, pushed off into
the stream. An old boatman warned
him to beware Of going out too far. The
young man smiled and nodded, but
pushed straight out into the food. At
once the beatman saw that he had lost
control Of his little craft, and shouted to
him To edge about, as he was in the rush.
The rover raised an oar in answer to his
cries; the shaft was snapped across--but
whether done by accident or design, the
old man could not say. Gold help
you sighed the boatman; in few more
moments they we're gone, When friends
came to see the bodies it was found to be
case of passion and despair Loving
each other madly, they had fed from
home and parents who opposed their
union; they had sought Niagara, the cure
of disappointed love; and in these wa
ters they had found their everlasting
rest.
From Table Rock toward Lake Ontario
sweeps chasm for many miles, through
which the rapids race with velocity that
make the eddies of the Danube at the
Iron Gates seem tame, the whirlpools Of
the Neva round the rock of Schlussel
commonplace. This chasm is the fav-
orite grave of hapless lovers and despair
| ing maids. The mighty fssure has eaten
it out, the teeth gnawing deeper in the
rock from age to age. No man has yet
surveyed this bed and told US how far
down into the earth these volames Of de-
scending water plunge. You dare not
push your boat into the foam. But on
the outer edge of these great circles you
may drop your line, hundred feet, two
hundred feet, and find no bottom. Many
persons dive into the deep, but never
rise again to tell the tale. Their dive is
taken once for all. The bodies Of the
dead are rarely found Some months
age lady came alone to hotel on the
American side-s pretty woman, young
and we'll attired, who gave her name as
the wife Of Chicago merchant.
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 missing
at her hotel. A guide had seen woman
fling herself fiom the bridge on one
Of the sister isles, bat whether she was
drowned or nor he could not say. A
telegram was sent to Chicago and by
noon OF the second day mau arrived
who said he was the lady's husband.
The guide could not assure him that the
lady missing from the hotel was the
woman he had seen spring from the
bridge. he had never noticed her be-
fore. The lady from Chicago might have
simply crossed the bridge. When high
rewards we're offered for the BODY, men
who knew every stone and gully in the
ravine as they knew the logs and ladders
of their own shanties, searched every
crevice in the rocks, but not trace oi
her could be found, and the disconsOlate
widower had tc 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 to Clifton from q
town on Lake Ontario, accompanied BY
= her mother and her child, She stood
on Table Rock, listened to the boom, ad
| mired the buffaloes and fed the besri
like other idlers on the spot, and seemed
Z as her child, to whom these sights anC
/ sounds were new. AS they we're lookinI
at shop window she turned toward tht
water, gazed at the falling sheet an in
slant, slipped away from her companion
ran to the waters edge at Cedar plac,
a and sprang into the food. A cry o
! help was reised. Some guides wer
near at hand with ropes and other gear
: and one of them, grappled safely by tn
J. waist plunged after her, and by dar
4 ing effort caught her as she rolled anon
the rocks, and carried her back to Ian
unhurt.
i For some time she was speechlesl
but on coming to her senses she told he
:. mother that her husband had been eros
with her that morning, wanting her
" take holiday when she had no min
'e for it, and that on seeing the water flo
lie so smoothly down and looking so lovel
IS she saw a pleasant way to end all he
n worries. The water tempted her. Br
she was glad they had caught her in tn
u rapids For, from the moment she b.
ID gan to glide helpless waif, the water
e. lost their power, the romance OF he
life flashed upon her brain-her hu
bands trust, her happy home, hi
OF parents doting and her ohildrens low
10 The heart cried out for life-for on
40 more trial Of her duty. She was savet
! Next year she came to Clifton with h'
u child to look at the ledge from whic
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