The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1879-01-24

ing with my frenzied exertions. had won
some way. had edged some distance from
the central rush of the river, and safety
would be found in the slower waters tha,
skirted the bank, could but reach them
Il bent still more msdly to the effort In
a moment bM lost my hold of existence,
and was rushing, helpless and hopeless, to
the dreadful fate had been fighting AGAINST,
One of my paddles, overstrained, had brok-
IN, and, at the mercy of the mighty food, I
was speeding every minute more swiftly to
what knew so we'll what saw as plainly
with my minds eye as had thousands of
lines seen it with my living sight
How | saw all we are looking down On
here! Not sight, not sound, we are see
ing and hearing, but it was in that moment
heard and seen by me more vividly than
now. was literally bewildered with the
roar now hear so al'.ly.
4 shrieked aloud in my agony as I clasp
ed my useless hands over my sight, vainly,
to shut out the smooth side of the inland
sea, as | saw it flashing back the morning
sun as it lespt into the misty gulf into whose
thunder it shot,
"A few moments bore me down to the
rapids. A few more moments was through
them-safely. How escaped wreck among
them puzzles me. was too parayzed with
horror to use my one paddle to in any way
Iteer my light craft through. the foamiug
currents on which it tossed It's lightuess
must have saved it. Had it been heavier
'uilt boat it would have been dashed to
'breds score Of times before we reached
smooth water. As it WAS, iC danced along,
rolicklng, as 1t seemed to me, with ghast.
y defiance of the destiny to which it so sure
y hurried.
Out of the Kissing out of the frothing
oaml We we're on the calm, majestic mass
If waters-the sea tide, you might surely
call it, that was to hurl itself and me to
atoms.
How oddly the mind acts in such moments
IF horror Would you believe itS a tradi
tiou of Niagara actually occurred to me a.
flashed along 1t was an Indian legend
| remembered how an Indian squsw, long
the favorite of famous chief, found young
maiden was to supplant her in her wigwam.
| recollected--l swear l saw it as plainly a.
if imagination and reality were one-she
bore the best loved child she had borne to
its father from her forest home, till she
reached canoe. Then she padded herself
and her boy into the full stream and cast
the paddles from her, and with q heavy
heart nerved by hate and revenge and mis-.
ry unendurahle, stood up chanting her death
song that recounted her wrong and her mis-
cry and welcomed her coming escape from it,
till they shot into eternity amid the hell OF
waters below.
Even while this was for an instant flashing
through my bewildered brain, was enter.
ing the very heart of the thunder of the fall
Moments only separated me from my release
from agony. But the Indian stoicism wa
foreign to me; could have yelled aloud in
the terror that possessed me.
Il dared not await seated the awful last
moment that was so near. faced my fate
turned ] stood up. looked straight
I
launch me to peace eternal.
, The food had scarcely ripple on its sur
face.
, WAS it real Within few yards of tn,
awful brink the canoe had shot BY fla
speck of rock just off the shores of Goat Is
Ian lay that stirless on the very edge OF thu
abyss.
With hardly conscious effort in passin,
, | had sprung to its slippery surface. Tha
| moment had saved me from instant annihi
ation. The canoe was gone. l vas stand
ing as yet, alive, whilst almost washing m,
very feet the sea of waters hurried on-ol
either side of me and disappeared,
gasped cry of blessing for delverauce
> Deliverance? Was it deliverance? Fo
how long yet breathed, but who would
who could, save me from the rushing food
!, that tore past me, from the tn ndering cata
ract that fel almost within reach Of m
toach
ooh, heaven What had saved life fol
: For prolonged agony? For such miser
as must end in starvation, madness or sui
eide Could my mind long bear the strai
now upon it How could it? N
Let your eye skirt the rounding edge {
this nearest fall You can see the yer
; rock was on. 1t looks but yards from th
y larger space of Goat Island; but those yart
we're as bad as miles They were an impsss,
BILE gulf between me and the stretch of roc
l that seems 80 near.
What were my chances of escape? Da
hope there were any was almost I,
wild with terror to think at all. Yet Il
. brain seemed favored with life in such m
'- 'ments.
SHOULD be starved Should slide I'M
" the rushing tide from cold and exhaustion
Would sheer, nnbearable terror fling me
IT death, from my utter inability to endure 4
= horror that possessed met
' What could be done for me Was resc
!, possibl-s Could a boat be Aoated to M
Even ifit could be guided to such a Sun
, point, could | dare to trust myself to it 7
a,I Would any rope be strong enough to b
a :, the force that the mighty food would requ
= it to endure and overcome
,, AN instant's relaxation of the strain
:" the rope that might hold it till it towed
to shore, and /, if not it, would be VIII
IN my own canoe had gone.
~ Would human strength, could human
" deavor, snatch me from the doom that
NJ 80 nearly already engulfed mes
or All these thoughts we're in my brain
Isl that instant, even while the very power
IN think seemed frozen in me.
" How could dare to see ? Ishrieket
; " be senseless. Oh, for madness, if msdr
-. would rid me of the terror liz my brain
very blood, that WAS, as it seemed, my
that so possessed me, that existence
ny room for nothing but unutte rable horror