The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1911-07-26
OVER NIAGARA IN
BARREL AND NOT
MUCH HURT
Second Navigator to Traverse
the Falls and Live
LEACH BADLY BATTERED
Said Pounding in the Rapids Was
Worse Than Big Drop over the
Brink

Niagara Falls. N. Y, July 90
Bobby Leach, 40 years old, of Mag
ara Falls Ontario, this afternoon
went over the Horseshoe Falls in
barrel and still lives Though he
was severely battered and bruised in
the drop OF 1873 feet over the brink OF
the cateract, he sustained only super
fetal Injuries and tonight is able to
be about his house. This is the sec
ond time in the history of the rivers
that the cataract has been success.
fully navigated Mrs. Anna Edison
Taylor of this city made the trip in
barrel on October "a, 1901, and
came out alive.
Harassed by the police on both
sides of the river, Leach was forced
| this afternoon to make his start from
La Sale, village two miles and
half above the cataract on the United
States side of the stream. Albert
Mang and William Perry, old river
men, took him out in launch mo
the Canadian channel. They stopped
at Navy Island, where everything was
made shipshape and Leach was plac-
ed in the barrel, a steel affair, eleven
feet long, the ends Of Illuminated
wood Leach was hung in a canvas
hammock
The barrel with its passenger was
cast adrift just of the mouth OF
Chippewa Creek, hardly mile above
The brink OF the Horseshoe, at 2 :52 O.
clock and was quickly caught by the
| nF paRt1g
wind drove it toward the Canadian
mainland, and it coursed down for a
time slowly to the falls. When 500
yards from the brink the barrel was
caught in the tremendous current and
raced to the chasm.
Though the water was unusually
high the barrel was roughly handled
in the upper rapids. Within 200 yds.
of the brink II struck hard against a
rock and large section of the wood
en- end was broken off. AS the bar
rel reached the crest at 1913 O'Clock
1t swung straight and went plunging
down the abyss on its long axis
Hardly thirty seconds elapsed from
the time that II made the plunge be-
fore il was seen, a red speck, car
eening in the spume below the catar.
act With the terrific outrush of the
Horseshoe, caused by high water the
barrel went floating down, tossing
and tumbling in its passage toward
the upper steel arch bridge. Just
abreast of the Ontario Power com
panys generating station the barre
was caught in an eddy and there spun
around for several minutes before
again catching the down current
Men in Leachs employ were ready
in a rowboat just beyond TO catch
the barrel, but before they could gel
to their oars, Frank Bender OF Chip
pewa swan out to II with rope and
caught the barrel by one of its han
dies. From that point the barrel was
towed ashore and the cover quickly
lifted
Leach was bleeding and appeared
in a bad way, but once out OF the bar
rel he raised himself and waved L
the crowds that lined the bank. He
was exhausted and IL was necessary
to apply oxygen to revive him. He
thought that his leg was broken bu
examination showed that II wal
merely sprained.
Il minded the tumbling above th'
Falls more than the big drop sale
Leach. Like TO killed me the Wa,
was tossed about before | hit thu
brink