The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1879-09-27
A Moment of Fate.
Mrs. JONATHAN HAYNES

The Denver (Col.) Tribune tells the following
thrilling story OF the Grand Canon OF Colorado !:
Charles May and his brother Robert IN the spring
Of 1870 offered to pass railroad ties down the Ar
kansas from the mountain source. He says 4:
90 Our offer was accepted, when we started into
the upper entrance of the canon with a large skif.
provided with six days provisions and 200 feet of
rope, with which. by taking a running turn
around some firmly planted object, We could low
er our boat a hundred feet at a time. In this
way, at the end of three days, having set adrift
many hundred ties, we reached the entrance of
Royal George. Here we discovered that an at
tempt to descend the first waterfall with two in
the boat was certain destruction, and to return
was impossible Accordingly, l determined to
lower my brother down the fall in the boat. At
a distance of 200 feet 1 gave him the rope and let
him take the chance of the canon, life seemed
more certain in that direction) while l would
risk my physical ability to climb the canon wal,
which was about 1000 feet high.
About 10 O'Clock in the morning | shook hands
with my brother. lowered him in the boat safely
to the foot of the fall, gave him the rope and saw
him no more. Then throwing aside nv coat, hat
and boots, and stripping the socks from my feet,
l commenced my climbing way, often reaching
the height of 100 or 200 feet only to be compelled
to return to try some other way. AT length,
about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, L reached a
height on the smooth canon of about a thousand
feet. Here my further progress was arrested by
a shelving ledg. OF rock that jutted out from the
canon side a foot or more. To advance was with
out hope to return certain death. Reaching
upward and onward, l grasped the ledge with
one hand, and then with the other my feet
slipped from the smooth side of the canon, and
my body hung suspended in the air a thousand
feet above the roaring waters of the Arkansas.
At that moment l looked downward to measure
the distance l would fall when the strength of my
arms gave out. A singing sensation crept
through my hair as my eye caught the strong
root Of a cedar bush that projected over the ledge
just beyond my reach. My grasp of the ledge
was fast yielding to the weight of my person.
Then l determined to make my best effort to raise
my body and throw it sideways toward the root,
so as to bring it within my grasp. At the mo-
ment of beginning the effort l saIC my mothers
as she leaned out over the ledge, reached
down her hand and caught me By the hair. Stran-
ger, my mother died while yet a young woman,
when | and my brother were small boys, but |
remember her face. l was successful in making
the side leap of my arms, when L drew myself
upon the ledge and rested for a time. From here
upward my climbing way was laborious, but less
Preached the top just as the sun was
down behind the snowy range, and hast
ened to our camp at the mouth of the canon,
where I found my brother all safe. Charley"
said he, "a have you had your head in a aour
cack % II was then that l discovered that nv