The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-10
PLAYING WITH NIAGARA.
Talk with a Man who Saw Captain
Webb Drown.
From the New York Tribune.

From the New York Tribune.
80 far as know, Mrs. Taylor is
the first living creature that ever went
over Niagara Falls and came out
alive" said a New Yorker yesterday
talking of the woman who performed
that feat the other day. Il pracuced
law for eight years at Niagara Falls.
and 1 fancy 1 know every stone along
that river. But l make a possible eA-
ception in regard to fishes. There may
have been an occasional fish that lived
through it, but fish don't come ashore
TO report the occurrence, no matter how
proud they feel about it, There have
been stories about a Newfoundland
dog that did the trick. but in my opin-
ion nobody ever saw the dog afterward.
There have been yards of advertising
about the man who was going to do IT
in a Boynton rubber suit, and the
other who would do it in a rubber
beat, but they never came nearer than
Buffalo TO the brink of the falls.
Yet it is said that Mrs. Taylor
sent a cat over in the same barrel be-
fore she tried it herself, so that 1 may
be wrong about the cat, and may have
to content myself with saying that
only one human being has survived the
plunge. Even wild duck have a good
deal of trouble in that vicinity When
they are migrating there are often
number to be found at dawn in that
part of the river which is below the
falls and above the Whirlpool Rapids.
I used TO go out in scow in that part
and bag them sometimes. They were
generally in a somewhat dazed condi-
ton, and some of the local sportsmen
said that they came flying up the river
in the dark till they entered the fall
ing water and got stunned. Others
said they We're simply tired flying
round the gorge; not knowing enough
70 rise two hundred feet and get out.
He Saw webb Drown.
TT was in that quiet part of the
river that the celebrated swimmer.
Captain Webb, the only man who
ever swan from England to France,
got out of mis- boat in order to swim
the Whirlpool Rapids. The authorities
tried TO stop him. and they would
have stopped him if he had attempted
to make a public exhibition of it, bat
Webb went down and entered the
water privately. A cabman gave me
the tip that the trial was coming off.
Webb had arranged with John McCloy.
the big ferryman, who rowed people
House, and he rowed him down as near
as he dared toward the rapids, where
Webb jumped out-in the calm water
just above the Michigan Central
cantilever bridge.
by that time I had descended the
precipice in one of the cars that slid
people down to the edge of the Whirl-
pool Rapids. Soon / saw a black spot
on the smooth water, far up the river.
This was Webb's head. AS he went
under the bridges people were remark
ing the whiteness Of his skin: but be-
fore he got down to where / was he
was scarlet don't know whether this
was due to congestion through suffo-
cation, or TO the heavy slapping of the
water on his head and shoulders. On
his passage from the bridge down to
me l lost sight of him most of the
time. The surges of water that rush
diagonally and partly backward over
the main current of the river were
perhaps hiding him or covering him.
People on the bridges said after
ward that he attempted to breast the
first surge and got hard hit, that the
second laid him out fiat on his back.
and that he attempted to dive under
the third, as if to escape it's force. But
however he may have Jared on this
short passage, he was in the last
battle of his life when he came OPP
poslte to me. At that time he was
travelling at the rate of nineteen miles
an hour-that being the speed of the
water as scientifically measured-and
he was near enough to our side to
chuck a handline to him, if we had
had one ready. But he took no notice
of US standing near and had no ap-
pearance of being fearful of his life.
He was shaking the wet clear of his
eyes and was 'treading water" as
swimmers say as he passed.
Sucked Down to Death.
In our group of half a dozen no one