The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1899-05-04
WIRE WALKING AT NIAGARA.
The Adventurous Biondin Has hao
Many ImitatOrs.

Tho Adventurous Diohu"
q Many Imitators.
Wire-walking exploits form con-
siderable feature in the history OF ad-
ventures at Niagara Falls. They be-
gan with the feat of Blondin, the fam
Gus French rope-w walker, who threw
cable across the chasm in the summer
of 1859 and made his first trip across
on June 30th of that year. lie hau
been refused permission to stretch the
wire from Goat Island to the Canad-
ian side-the newspapers denouncihs
him as a fool and 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 fail 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 man On
his back-Darry Colcourt, Blondin's
business manager, 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,
Blondin crossed on the rope chained
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
tions, one being on 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 soon went across with
Colcourt on his back.
J There have been many imitators of
Blondin. In 1873 an Italian named
Bellini stretched wire from opposite
the ferry landing to Prospect Park,
and three times he jumped from the
middle of the cable into the river and
swan to shore
Steve Peer, q 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
I 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
J that had been used by Peer. This
( amateur rope-walker, thirty-eight
: years of, age, had practiced almost
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
| took 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
misstep.
He did a number of other daring
feats as he neared the atber 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.
|