The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1899-06-29
WIRE WALKING AT NIAGARA.
The Adventurous Biondln Has Had
Many Imitators.

Wire-walking exploits form a con-
siderable feature in the history Of ad-
ventures at Niagara Falls. They be-
gan with the feat of Blondin, the FAM
GUS French r~ope-walker, who threw a
cable across the chasm in the summer
of 1859 and made his first trip across
IN June 30th of that year. He had
been refused permission to stretch the
wire from Goat Island to the Canad-
ian side-the newspapers denouncing
him as a fool and a fraud-and was
compelled to run it to a private pleas
ure ground on the Canadian side, the
work, moreover, having to be done dur
ing the night to avoid interference
from the cautious residents.
Not many people witnessed Blon-
din's first crossing, the impression
having been general that the man was
insane or would fah at the last mo-
ment. When he had accomplished the
feat, the utmost amazement was ex-
pressed, which, however, was again
turned to incredulity when he an
nounced that he would cross the wire
again, and this time with a man on
his back-Darry Colcourt, Blondin's
business manager, a man weighing one
hundred and ffty-five pounds. The
feat was successfully accomplished on
the afternoon of August II, 1859, amid
roars of applause from the multitude
that looked on.
On August oath in the same year,
p1nnain apncrn1 ~ 4ha .o~a o1-snAl
hand and foot, and on his return car
ried with him a cooking stove on
which he made an omelette.
In the summer of the following year
he had the cable removed to a point
below the suspension bridge, and i'm
mediately over the whirlpool rapids,
where he gave several further exhibit
lions, n being IN August 2, 1860,
when the Prince of Wales and the
encouragement of Canada looked on.
Before Blondin started, the Prince,
having looked at the wire and the
rapids, became nervous, went to Blon-
din and begged him not to make the
attempt. But the rope-walker smiled,
said it was not SO dangerous as it
looked, and DON went across with
Colcourt On his back.
There have been many imitators of
Blondin. In 1873 an Italian named
Bellini stretched a wire from opposite
the ferry landing to Prospect Park,
n three times he jumped from the
middle of the cable into the river and
swan to shore.
Steve Peer, "a celebrated American
wire-walker, repeated Blondin's feat
on June %, 1887 in connection with the
Queens Jubilee celebration on the
Canadian side. He crossed in nineteen
minutes. A few nights afterward
Peer, while intoxicated, determined, so
it is supposed, to repeat the perform
ance, and unknown to any one went
out and climbed on the wire with the
result that next morning he was found
lying dead on the rocks below.
An exhibition of wire-walking that
attracted considerable attention at that
time was that of S.. J. Dixon, a Toronto
photographer, who used the same cable
that had been used by Peer. This
amateur rope-walker, thirty-eight
SOolo VI dSC, hdu pI dCIlCSu dlulOSI
daily for some weeks on a wire
stretched sixty feet above the water
of Toronto Bay, before he essayed the
tremendous adventure which made
Blondin SO famous. This he under
look dressed in tights and moccasins,
and carrying a pole twenty-five and a
half feet long, weighing thirty pounds.
He showed no uneasiness or nervous
ness, although slight ~unsteadiness of
the long cable caused him to pause fire.
quently to regain the balance that he
momentarily lost.
When he reached the center of the
gorge, this amateur lay down on his
back on the wire, with his balancing
pole under him. Two hundred and
fifty feet below ran the furious rapids,
ready to devour him should he make
a misstep.
He did a number of other daring
feats as he neared the other end of the
wire, and finally touched soil on the
American side thirteen minutes after
he started. A few minutes later he re-
appeared with a hoop around his
ankles, and in this way walked out on
the wire about two hundred yards.