The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-10-23
HOODOOED AT THE FALLS.
soMEBoDYzBWAYs WENT OYER MAG
r WHEN JOSEPH BOOK LRRTYED

AMNM AMMAN - W..
was n Few Weeks AGo-Whsnovsr He
looked at tho water Somebody Was
Struggling for Life or HAD Just Been Lost.
Il am a subscriber 70 o whole lot OF coun-
try newspaper" said John Gilbert. the trav-
elllng groceryman. because they keep me in7
formed in local matters In the line Of my BUSH
ness and in other things. 1 have been away
q few weeks, and have Just finished going
through the accumulated copies Of those news
papers. In one Of them. Of Issue q month or
30 aRo, / read a three-Iine personal. aslmple.
regulation. country newspaper personal. say
tug that eo-and-so Ind been on n visit 70 such
nnd-sueh n place. That was all. But Il star
tod me and set me to thinking. ni-a ~
IN tho FIRST place, I will go back q little. l.
read In THE Sun at the time ID occurred.
which was four or i've weeks ago, nbout Peter
Solemn. the eccentric Philadelphia brewer,
going to Niagara Falls. jumping into the rap
ids above the falls, and meeting the fate that
inevitably follows such an act. and 1 couldn't
help saying TO myself: ~
=" Can't be that Uncle Joe has been there
again. can itr s
The coming OF this thought into my mind
was a little singular. because / hadn't seen
Uncle Joe since 1887. by the way. Uncle Joe
n Joseph Zook Of Dauphin county. One day
in the summer OF 1887 1 met Uncle Joe in Har-
risburR.
4 oohus baNu y II ah vi ny ~ w
Niagara Falls. This will make my fourth visit
to the great cataract. and / hope there win be
no fatality connected with It.
what do you moan Uncle Joep' said I. ~
1t is a strange story. john said he. but 1t
is true. Just you listen. My first visit to
Niagara was in the summer of 1858. and / had
been Their, not more than an hour when l wit
messed the agonizinG scene OF a Young man
and a beautiful fair-haired child swept away
hv Aha auiFf n,,rrant frnrn Cont Ta1nnd and
dashed over the Falls. The young man was
Charles Addlngton. and the child was little
Eva De Forrest. Tho Addingtons and De For
rests were prominent Buffalo families. Young
Charles Addington was engaged to be mar
ried to Ada De Forrest. a sister OF Eva. The
day that / paid my first visit to Niagara, Mrs. De
Forrest. Ada. her little sister Eva. and young
AddinRton had come from Buffalo for q days
outing at the Falls. They picnieked on Goat
Island. and little Eva having straYed away
from the group. her mother sent young Al
dington to find her and fetch her back. He
discovered her not far away, standing on the
shore, looking at the swift water. Stealing
mp behind her, he ~thouEhtlessly grasped the
child under the arms. and. lifting her up. held
her out over the water. She threw up her
arms and slipped from his hands into the
river. Addington sprang In and caught her
before she had been carried into the swifter
SoAAOh" nv ouNNtNdONt SilNCA q
struggle. in getting back near enough to the
shore to enable him to throw the child up on
the bank. She had not sufficient strength to
hold there until her mother you'd grasp her
and pull her to n safe place. and she fell buck
into the water, Addington again seized her.
but he was too much exhausted to make way
AGAINST the current. and the two were carried
into the rapids and disappeared together over
the Falls. / was on Goat Island and saw the
whole occurrence,
I'm the summer OF 1875 1 again visited Nj
agara Falls. 1 arrived there at night. and
early next morning / walked over to Goat ISL
and. and. looking dow the American rapids.
what should l see but a man elm zing to an old
tTees srq s6e s tnaf h isIan az some on G sime I IsdGsda a 6si
the American shore; Before 1 could give the
alarm the man had been discovered by 9th
man was or how he came to be in his perilous
situation no, one knew. hut it was supposed
somewhere above the night before. and, losing
control Of his boat, had been swept down into
the rapids. and the boat striking the tree trunk,
he had by some miracle gained a foothold
.""As soon as possible after the discovery of
the mans peril. word was telegraphed to Buff
iaio. and q party Of liie-sayers, came on a
Before 10 o'clock thousands Of persons were
gathered at every available SPOT where a sight
The railroads ran special trains. "a and people
came In ,conyeyances Of all kinds from the
sS fS9T b1x c 20 pst 10 M No pn so f Ss N i'd a. e tl IT.
man. but he chung to the tree. watching every
mSys that m,v was bs maGeLhoE anxioasly he
impossible to make him hear anything that
might be shouted to him. and there was no
lifeboat was attached TO, a cable and let down
the RAPIDS from the bridge toward him, Guide
snd; The plan : vas well !" eaiealated. ana the
S Sss % RSSsi6 directly tsyt for th 1ii6 spot O6S Th Sss, Che MAJ MAJ
assemSIed multitude began to feel Z that in ma a
s Drawn Ri asRSre, 'n $uG H3eI R az. SS Sst na BE os sa,S1E
iR ike q \ S WsaE Gfts the str EiSPld and The he cable S6.s parted parted
past like a flash and was carried over the Falls.
the m mhis sS sod sdpf fba u to that Effort tEnt t to rescue Saas
no hope for the man in that plan. Several
S StSsTs w SEloS su e soSE an END la fiefii Il ,S S9s atS Ess
hours Of suspense | don't believe one Of the
spectators moved from his tracks. Everything
the terrible scene Of a fellow-being hanging on
the verge q death and patiently awaItinE the
issten q strong cable securely 70 the American
ttss i belly down with the raft to the tree trunk.
reaching the log and the man had crawled
upon, 1t, could be steadily drawn to a small isl
which small island his rescue would be- e nS%
Some food and q glass OF brandy were fioated
On tno rAlV. Win n rope ana written lnStruc-
lions 70 the man as to what was to be done
and what he must do. The raft moved down
and reached the tree trunk in safety.
" AS the man dropped from his perilous
perch tupon the raft. dashed himself toll with
eagerly seized the brandy and food. such q
shout as vent up from the thousands OF peo-
bAted breath was never heard before. II could
be heard above the angry roar Of Niagara. The
Eaft was. slowly pulled toward the small island.
Everything seemed working to q charm. The
tension on the feelings Of the spectators was
so great that many tainted away People were
Bobbing on. every eide. Suddenly the raft
stopped, The cable. drawn as, 1t was beneath
the water, caught on some obstruction. All
efforts to loosen II were pnayailing. Ono Rroan
otagony arose from the great, crowd. The
Hfesavers toiled and tugged at the rope, bur It
still chung to the obstruction. It was now near
sunset: The man on the raft had unlashed
the possibility OF his being washed OF by the
current and Joined his efforts yith the others