Arizona republican., 1901-09-04
CHAMBERLAIN'S EXPLOIT
Passed Safely Through Whirlpool
 Rapids and Devils Hole.

whirlpool rapids below Niagara, thu!
 accomplishing q feat which many have
 sacrificed their lives in attempting ant which a young woman now giving
 swimming lessons in Buffalo has ans
 nounced as her greatest ambition. ar
 ambition she hopes to gratify some time
 this month
 Chamberlains swim was all but se-
 cretly made, as only a few friends were
 with him, and this fact doubtless pre-
 vented the announcement of it in the
 press dispatches. The news comes to
 Phoenix through T. F. Dalton, who is personally acquainted with the Cham
 berain family, the following story of
 the young mans adventure being print
 cd In the Ogdensburg Advance, pub
 lished in Ogdensburg, N. Y, MT Dal-
 tons former residence:
 The Niagara river from the falls to
 Lewiston Was navigated once. long
 ago, by a small steamer with two men
 aboard and from the falls to the whirl-
 pool by dare-devils in barrels, and even
 in small boat, but the honor of per
 forming the feat of swimming from the whirlpool through the Devils Hole. through the swiIling and turbulent rap- ids below until still water is reached
 just above the Lewiston bridge, be-
 longs to a Buffalo man. His name Is
 Charles H. Chamberlain and he lives
 at No. 3j7 Forest avenue. He is a
 trained nurse by profession, although he has recently been employed as a mOtorman on the Elmwood avenue line
 of the International Traction company,
 Chamberlain was born at Wadding- ton, St. Lawrence county, on the banks
 of the St. Lawrence river, 23 years ! ago, and it was there that the love of
 swimming was bred in him from child- hood Last summer, while on a pleas
 ure jaunt down the Gorge route. the
 thought came to him as he watched the 1 various currents of the madly whrlins river that it would he possible for q bold swimmer to make the trip In safe . ty He studied the currents again care fully. and finally expressed his convic.
 tions to his frieEils He was laughed at, and the natives of the river gorge told him there was one chance in thousand for a man to go through safely
 1 Last Thursday Chamberlain decided to take the one chance and go through the rapids. He arranged to go down to the gorge on Friday with a party of eight friends, but at the last moment six of the party backed out. and re- fused to watch him s,icide Two of his friends stuck to him. J. M Newhouse and R. C. JObes.
 Chamberlain is a single man but his parents are still alive. so he carefully ,r, F-. Ia; 1,.l. have them sent in case of accident and wrote his parents.
 Chamb7 rlain prepared for his peril ous journey by donning a bathing suit without any padding, stockings and rubber sOled buckskin shoes. He fas- tened a big circular cork life preserver around his body just below the arms, and below this a cork belt. The belts were very firmly secured to the body to prevent dislodgement by coming in con- tact with the rocks.
 He gave no publicity to his intended feat, fearing lest the authorities would prevent him from making the attempt As he explains it himself, he was mak- ing the swim for his own amusement and satisfaction, so accordingly had on- ly his two friends with inn when he arrived at the point on the American bank just where the water enters the Whirlpool. He studied the current again. and discovering a current which struck the bank a few feet up turned sharply to the right and down the river without going around the whirlpool He Irepared to start from the point tl,at would take him l,o l,;,, plunge a number of people had gather ed and one of the number took a couple of snap shots at hrn as he went in. The rest of the story is best told by the swimmer himself.
 "I had no feeling of fear when | entered the watey,' said he, although | my friends hung onto me, and l had t0 | tear myself away from them to get in | As soon as the current caught me l was | swished along at N terrific rate of speed | and in few seconds had safely passed | the entrance to the whirlpool and was | going at railroad speed for the Devils {! Hole. II gre was W here I had the worst | experience.
 When 1 struck the hole the bottom seemed to drop out of the river and | felt that l was going through space. Down and down I went. while the water roared and thundered around me until l was almost deafened Usually there is more or less light under water. but l remember looking around when I was down there and it was as dark as a dun geon. l was nearly suffocated when shot to the surface again, and my friends state that l was under nearly three minutes. Before I could take a full breath l was plunged into an IS foot breaker ahead and went under again. From then until the end of tho journey was under almost haIf of the time. but never so long as in the Devils Hole.
 'As I got down the river l began 10 encounter rocks. My friends had boarded a trolley car, and with about sixty people they followed ne lown, and shouted out to me the posi- ion of the rocks to be avoided Only once did I wish that I was out of the liver. I was headed straight for a big rock and work as l would 1 could not get away from it. l thought it was all 1f, but just as l was against it the cur 'ent switched off to one side with such 'orce that it nearly tore my arm and leg ,ff. I now went out into the heart of ne strsam and out there I did strike a