Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-04-28

produces in such numbers people who. will
risk death for fame or notoriety.
When Mr.. Bayard gathered: the slack of
Sackville-W Tests trousers in one hand and
his coat collar in the other and heaved him
beyond seas into the bosom of Mother En-
gland, the British lion was astounded; but
instead of making fuss about it he roared
as gently as any sucking dove; the popu-
lar verdict being that nation which could
produce the parachute rider, Cat about that
date the latest American sensation in Lon
dom had right, through the might of its
undoubted courage, to be decisive and fat
footed in diplomatic matters.
EXCITED THE BRIT1sHERs.
No one who was present at one of Bald
wins parachute descents in England last
summer needs to be told what a sensation
they created among the phlegmatic natives.
The first descent made there this year was
made the other day by Cincinnati man,
Mr.. C. W. Williams, and copy of the
London Sporting Life just received gravely
chronicles the fact that nothing will satisfy
the spectators but that Mr.. Williams shall
have gold medal.
1t is because of the new reputation which
Jonathan is acquiring, as an individual and
| a nation, for absolute contempt for personal
danger that Bismarck has pulled in his
horns and practically relinquished plans
which all the world knows he had ma
tured for the seizure of Samoa.
|. Great oaks from little acorns grow, and
last Saturdays London Spectator is au-
thority for the misunderstanding to a
cablegram-that the fearlessness and gener-
osty exhibited by a crew of American sea-
men have washed away all traces of bitter
IL, al IL
British minds. These men were the crew of
the Trenton. As the British man-of-war
Calliope worked her way in the face of the
late disastrous tornado out of the harbor of
Apia into the open sea, which was her only
| chance she passed the disabled Trenton,
and to the surprise of her officers and al
most disheartened crew she was greeted with
! a cheer from the whole force on the doomed
ship. That cheer, under the circumstances,
was an evidence of courage that knows no
fear of death, and the Britons know it.
Hear what late issue of the London Tele-
| graph says:
Consider the scene and the matchless hero
ism and generosity of this Yankee crew. AL
| most sure of instant death themselves, they
could see the Queens ship fighting the hurri-
cane, and appreciate the gallantry of the effort
with the generous pleasure of true marines.
We do not know in all naval records any sound
which makes finer music upon the ear than
| the cheer of the Trenton's men. 1t was dis
| tressed manhood greeting triumphant man
| hood-the doomed saluting the saved. 1t was
! pluckier and more human than any cry raised
| upon the deck of a victorious Vine of battle
forgotten, by Englishmen speaking of Ameri-
cans. That dauntess cheer to the Calliope
was the expression of an immortal courage"
BEATS THEM ALL.
To come from the contemplation of SUBJ
| lime scene like this, to the antics of boy
who jumps into space for the mere reckless
determination to beat the world, involves,
of course, drop; but that the boy has cour-
age developed in as high degree as the sea-
men noted above no one will deny.
'If the man really jumped from High
bridge into the Kentucky river, he has
beaten us all by 60 feet; and whenever he
wants to do it again, he can make 81 900 by
| it. is the remark with which Steve Brodie,
of New York, met the news that he is no
longer the champion plunger of the world.
A hundred miles south of Cincinnati, on
the line OF the Cincinnati, New Orleans and
| Texas Pacific Railway, one of the most won
| derful monuments to the skill of American
engineers spans the Kentucky river. 1t is
the highest bridge in America. Looked at
| from a distance it is mere spider web,
! thrown across a chasm between two lime
stone bluffs, and supported by tapering
mastS, Wnlcn reacn down nunQreQS OF Ieet
to couple of broad and solid stone piers.
The river is broken above and below by
bowlders of limestone, which jut
above its surface; but Immediately
under the bridges center span pool
IL feet deep lies black and
quiet. AT noon on the 11th of April, Mere
dith Stanley, wood sawyer, % years old,
weighing about 115 pounds, and having the
general air OF difident school boy, jumped
| from the bridge, fell without waver from
the perpendicular line assumed at the be-
ginning through 2S5 feet of air and splashed
] like big stone into the pool. His canvas
r shoes rebounded from the rivers rocky bed,
and when be was taken into boat on the
surface he coughed up some drops of blood.
In an hour he had recovered from the shock,
and now he is willing to make. the jump
again wheneyer Mr.. Brodie or his hackers
see fit to put up 81 900 which they have in
formally offered for a repetition of the
plunge.
Brodie's greatest leap was from Pough-
keepsie bridge, November 8, 1888, dis