Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-09-17
A NIAGARA TRAGEDY
A MAN DROWNED WHILE POWERLEsS
HUNDREDS LOOKED ON.

He Started TO Row Across the River, Lost
Control of His Boat, Took Refuge In a
Lodged Tree and Finally Went to His
Death Attempting to Leap Into Boat.
Since sunrise they had been reviewing
the wonders concentrated between Lake
Erie and Lake Ontario, for who could re-
sist the stop over privilegesY Certainly not
Chicagoans, who love the rush and roar Of
life and stupcndous ways of doing things.
They chose seat where they could look
into the majesty of the American cataract
and tried as the June day wanCd to realize
that the grave thunder, the desperate leap
of silver and sapphire, the grinding into
white smoke on the rocks below had been
going on for eras. This was a tremen-
dous mental undertaking for mOrtals accus-
toned to the eyanescencc of great power.
and they presently abandoned tho effort az
vain and confined themselves torcmarkinG
tho daring position of "a tree washed down
The river by recent frcshct and apparent
ly rooted in the ledge of rocks over which
raved and plunged the American falls. Tho
wooded giant, extended at full length,
seemed to be looking degantly over tho
rocky wall down into tho cadron below.
That the torrent must finally conquer was
evident, hut to defy Niagara for even Il
few hours-hOw magnificent!
"That tree reminds me of my first visit
to the falls" said sudden and deep
voice from beneath bench few feet
away from where the two travellers were
sitting As no one else was within rea-
sonable hearing distance, the awakened
dreamers felt the remark must be for
them, though the speaker looked as if he
were addressing the Canadian shore or tho
Three Sisters He was stout, elderly,
benevolent faced man to whom it was sure
ly quite proper to listen. He went on
hurriedly as if he felt impelled to tell q
story and wished it 1Snished, somewhat aft
er the manner of tho Ancient Mariner.
at must have been near the end Of tho
flftics, that first visit of mine. / had just
become captain Of boat on the river
and had como down here between runs.
A big tree had lodged over the falls, just
like that one there now. l seem to see it
all over again, only things along shore arc
different. A little before & o'clock ono
evening Il man started from the other
bank at what he must have thought u safe
distance from the falls. Very soon we
saw that it was desperate rowing with
him. but he seemed to be getting across
when suddenly his little boat began to
whirl downward with the current. He
went with it Of course, but he uttered no
Cry, and when almost ut the verge of the
prccipice he lcaped up and caught limb
of that trce-no, not that one, but the
one there 40 years ago-and seated him
self across the trunk. And there he sat-
with tho waters roaring close around him
like hungry wolves.
"You should have seen the excitement.
Men, women and children gathered on the
bank and stood, hour after hour, shouting
and praying and crying over that man, and
not one of them knew him. never did
hear who he was. People coming in on
the train stopped off to see what the ex
element was about, especially those from
the west on the Canada Southern, the one
now called the Michigan Central. You
know it runs several miles along the shore,
giving view of things from the rapids to
the whirlpool, and so people could see from
the car windows that something unusual
was happening down here.
"And some of the men who stopped off
dubbed together and offered Sl0,0 900 to
anybody who would save that man-he
perfect stranger too! And they went up
and down through the crowd, throwing
up their arms as if they were insane and
shouting out their offer till they were
hoarse. Ten thousand dollars then seem
ed as much as 500, 900 does now, and it
was awfully tempting, but everybody was
afraid, some because they didn't know
anything about the rocks and undercur-
rents, and some because they knew too
much.
"The man was but few feet from shore
we could talk with him from the bank.
He was we'll built, fine looking young
fellow of about %. When men wanted
few years ago to get the cable across for
the suspension bridge over there, and did
not know how, some one-an American
no doubt.-suggested way which they fol-
lowed. They sent across n kite. To the
tail of the kite they tied cord, to tho cord
a rope, to the rope a cable I've been Won
dering as 1 sat here why, in all that crowd,
not one Of us thought of trying to help in
that way. The wind blew toward the is
land, just over against where the man sat,
and we might have lowered q rope to him
-pOSSlDll. IltttN GIL hllONS VIZ NhllltNl W.
As the hours ran on we seemed to get &C
quainted with that man until he appeared
to be our own brother and yet we could
not get to him mouthful of food or help
him back to life. Well, he sat there look
ing into the face Of death, speaking only
when spoken to, from 8 O'Clock in the even
ing to o'clock the next afternoon-22
hours! At last something had to be done,
and so a boat, secured by ropes, was drift
ed toward him.. 1t seethed round and
round and then seemed to stop a second
right under where he sat. He gave a brave,
well aimed leap, but the boat glided from
under him, and with the words they say
every one uses in meeting sudden, con-
scious death-'My God!-he went over
the falls"
Here the elderly gentleman rose abrupt
ly and strobe away as If he could not trust
himself to say another word.-Chicago
Tribune.