The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1880-08-12
NIAGARA FALLS.
Some of the People VINO Have Conc over
the Cataract.

Some of the People Who Have Como over
the Cataract
John Paul writes as follows from Mag
ara Falls to New York paper. Within
twenty-five years more than sixty per-
sons have gone over the falls. Last
summer seven went over, four on the
American side and three on the Cana
can falls the bodies are very seldom
recovered, they tell me, while the bodies
of those who 90 over on the Canadian
side ale usually found. This is because
of the jagged rocks which lie hidden in
the whirl and foam at the foot OF the
American falls-these, grim teeth that
they are. seize upon the victim delivered
to them, and hold him in grip from
which neither bell nor diver can deliver
him. grip which shall not be relaxed
until the sound of that trumpet at
whose blast the most inaccessible graves
shall give up their dead. 1t is generally
boatmen, am told, familiar with the
river, who fall prey to the falls.
Crossing and recrossing the river in
safety thousands of times, knowing, rs
they suppose, every phase of the current,
they finally come to look upon it with
indifference if not with contempt, and,
going once too often to the well, come to
last. The usual fate ofall who toy with
the names of lions or attempt the role of
tiger-tamers is theirs. Some day there
is a craunch, and all is over. Last sum-
mer, for instance, two boatmen started
to cross the river in sailboat, taking
no oars along. 1t had been their home
since childhood, and boating was their
business. Who should presume to warn
themP But in mid river the wind died
away, and they found themselves in the
grip of the current-a grip relentless and
unrelaxing as that of fate. Faster and
faster, as though drawn by demons be-
meath the keel, their boat neared the
rapids. And once in the rapids-ah, the
story is soon told. From the head of
the rapids to their foot-the falls Ia dis
tance of perhaps eighty rods, the decline
is nigh upon ninety feet. And down
this inclined plane, as you can very well
see, the water slides with something of
the speed of an express train. 1t is
terrible meteor that shoots by the few
(for the exhibition has not been adver-
tised in advance) who stand on the
banks and bridges. Two pale-faced men
in a frail boat, seething waters around
them, and the falls laundering in antici-
pative triumph below, arms wildly out
stretched for an aid which none can
give, no cry tor succor audible, though
you know that the shrieks OF the doomed
are sent up to the skies-one glimpse of
this and no more. The baleful vision
has vanished, ana again the glad waters
are dancing and glancng onward in the
sun. You know that lives have been
quenched like tapers in the fateful foam
of the falls, but the only testimony TO
the tragedy is the great clouds of spray
which roll up to heaven like smoke from
the altar of immolation.
Here, as well as else where, whisky
comes to the aid of water and supple
ments it in the work of destruction.
Liquor is cheap on the Canadian side,
and so an abnormal boldness may be
begotten at what seems (and is in the
outset) a very inconsiderable cost. But
after crossing to the Canadian side the
American side not infrequeutly knows
the boatman no more forever. Charon
takes up the oar. and the Styx, not the
Niagara, is ferried. Thus Mr.. Whitney,
of the Cataract house, tells me that last
summer his son, sitting in the summer
house of his grounds above the rapids,
saw a man getting dangerously near the
| sliding water. Running down to the
bank he shouted to him to pull in shore
or he'd be caught in the current, but a
drunken stare was the only answer. A
few minutes more and the boat was
among the dimpling eddies-the smiles,
as it were, which precede the Internal
laughter of the rapids. Then the poor
wretch, suddenly sobered, realized his
position. Before he could hiccup a
single pater his sodden soul stood before
lis God.
No human being ever went over the
falls ana lived. Sam Patch but jumped
from ladder a hundl ed feet high
erected near the loot of Biddle stairs
Of the cats and dogs with which human
itarians have at various times expert.
mented il is said that some have beer
picked up alive, but | mainly doubt it
Why. let the fail but brush you with III
outermost skirt, and 'twere death; bu
one corner OF that ponderou, sheet, strik
ing with only half the impetus gathered
by its descent, would smite the life ou
OF behemoth!