The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1879-01-10
EBENsURGHPA., FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1879

its awful grasp. But mine was no vision
! OF the night To laugh at when awakened.
Those hours gTizzled the then brown Of my
young head into the iron-gray you see il
now. 1t has lived there ever since night
and day, season and season. There il will
stay till the death rattle calls the memory
Of all this side of nv cuffin.
Il hunted and fished then. That's how
! | lived. Visitors then came pretty plen,i
ful To see this wonder. ! could get - ready
sale for what | caught, whether 1t was fur
or fin. had canoed it from when could
recolIect any thing. and was pretty spry.
,eil you, with the paddles, aud pretty ven
turesome, ton, | became. till tbonght
was strong enough aud skilled enough 10
run risks hereabou;s that others would
have SIinddpred from.
81 Thought knew Niagara too wellio be
in any danger from IL. was so familiar
with il, Thought of Il with none the care
new comers found in it.. / used to laugh
a: their genuine fears at the very sig ht aud
sound of it. knew il 10y night when the
calm moonlight poured down right through
| the sIlveTed spray clouds that hung over
il; by day, when the glad san danced rain
bows above lis flashing fious. Then it,
was too old friend of niue To be dreaded
:. by me.
'One day changed all this, and knew
IT fu- the hungry munster that it is-piti-
less. craving for it's human prey.
1T was une "Wednesday Ia August. The
hotels were full. Fish was in request, as
much as | could bring. Price didu'i mat
ter. Pleasure-seekeIs bleed freely. MAS
paid we'll for wha: could be charged for as
they liked. | had found that the nearer
! The rapids | got the finer seemed what |
caught, and the moIe freely the bait was
! taken l had so often gone where most
| we're too timid To venture that had come
TO believe l could skim anywhere.
Even now L think, bad my paddle been
sound, should have come off safe.
well. that morning | was out at sunrise,
and pretty successful | Was. IsteadIed my
course, letting he canoe drift little by lutle
toward the rapids that fruthed and raved
some miles below. | felt at any moment
could shoot II out OF the strength or the
current into the smoother waters by the
| shore.
Il got fully employed with my lines, 70:
as giIded down stream, my take was rapid
aud that of the finest. So eager was that
| failed To pay that attention tu the urIft of
my canoe which was needful.
! 1T was With start at last | felt | was
| FAR too much in the full deep current Of the
river, aid that its streng Ia would need my
| utmost efforts to escape from its prasu
For the first time felt real dread, for the
boiling aud hiss of the seethiug waters
could almost be heard below me. Piled
the paddles strongly, aud for "a while | had
! hopes of safety, though had never known
| the need of the exertIons | ~as now using
! To draw myself out of the mighty force of
| the hOOc that sped onward 10 Its ieatful
fall.
Inch by inch fought my way upstream
and toward the shore where | was to sell
my mornings takings Every inch was
won by a strain that made the perspiratiun
stait irom every pore. 1t was Tor life |
fought, for dear life. Ii was death that |
pulled against such a death tor II
WAS as il a curtain was suddenly xithdrawu
TO show me all the danger / had so long
been running uncOnsciuusly. IL flashed
into my thoughts how | had PLAYED In the
very jaws of destruction that n.,w seemed
10 hunger for me.
''As tOiled franlically against the rush
ing waters, they were living things whose
clutch sought to drag me with them To
share their awful doom. | had growr SO |
used to the ROAR of the cataract tas | now /
reccllected. 50 near J that my thoughts
had ceased to be cognizant of it now it
almost stunned me.
81 talk stagily, don't /? l tell You,
stranger, If you want 10 wake up your fan
cy really well, just try an hours pull against |
Niagara, with the feeling that perhaps fate |
is against you. You II be far from cs,o, and /
commonplace in though: or speech, If YOU !
think or utter any thing.
passed, aud still | vas struggling frsnli- |
cally, streaming with my Irenzr exer-
ions. al won some way. had edged /
some distance from ths central rush of Ihe |
river. aud safety would be found in the |
slower waters that skuted the bank. could !
| but reach them.
bent stIli more madly to the effort
La a moment had hist my hold ON exist
ence aud was rushing, helpless and homeless I
To the dreadful fate | had been lighting /
against. One Of my paddles, ,oversIIaIned. |
had Oruken, aud, ut the mercy Of th, /
mighty Hood. | was speeding every minute |
more swiftly 10 what kne so wclI-wbar t
| saw AS plainly with my mind eve as | /
bad thousands of times seen IL with my lv-
ing sight.
''Ilow | saw all we are looking down on
here Not a sight, not sound. ". are
seeing aud hearing, but was IN that mo-
ment heard aud seen by me moIe vividly
than now. | WAS literally bew ildered with
the roar now hear So calmly.
u shIieked aloud IN my agony as |
claspea my us, less hands over my sighl,
vainy, I" shut out the smooth slide, of the
lnland sea, as | saw il flashing back the
morning sun as it leapt into the misty gulf
INTO whose thunder il shot
"A lew nomrDis bore me down to the
rapids. A few minutes, aud was through
them-saf' ly. How | escaped wreck
among them puzzles me. ! was too para
lyzed With horror TO use my own paddle,
or IN any way seer my light craft through
the foaming currents which it tossed =
Its lightness must have saved IT. Had il
been heavier built boat il woLId have
been dashed 10 shIeds a score or times be
fore we reached smooth water. As it was.
It danced along, frolicking, as it seemed to
me, with ghas;ly drfiAnce of the destiuy
To which il SD surely hurried.
IN. - 81. L.
foam! We were on the calm, majestic
mass OF water-tlie sea tide, you N gbt
surely call it, that was TO hurl itself and
me to atoms.
''How oddly the mind acts in such mo
ments of borIoT WonId you believe il :?
tradition of Niagara actually occurred 10
me as | flashed along. IL Was an Indian
legend. ! remembered how an Indian
squaw. long the favutite of famous chief
found yonng maiden To suppIant her
in her wIgwam. | recolIecf- swear
saw u plainly as IL imagination aud reality
n nna-aba htro lac, f.ocf