The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-07-12
Charles G. stephens in His Barrel.

/ a
ply for eight hours.
CharlesG- Stephens, OF Bristol, Eng,
was killed Sunday when he went over
the Horseshoe falls in a barrel. The
cask in which he made the trip, tho
built of stout Russian oak slaves and
bound with steel hoops was smashed
like an egg shell on the jagged rocks
at the cataract, then it was lost to
view in the misty spray.
Pieces of the barrel were picked UP
near the bank on the Canadian side,
but Stephens body has not been re-
covered.
River men say that it may not come
up for. a week or ten days.
Stephens was 5S years old and has
a wife and eleven children in Bristol,
where he was a barber. He served
three years in France with the British
army. He had planned to make a
lecture tour of England If his trip
were successful.
Disaster Was Predicted.
Bobby Leach. who went over the
Horseshoe falls in 1911, told Stephens
before he started that his trip would
be a failure. Leach predicted that
the barrel would not Withstand the
drop of ass, feet. but Stephens refused
to be dissuaded from the venture.
Leach was among. the spectators who
watched the start of Stephens fatal
trip. ,.,s -.
Few knew that Stephens was to
make the trip Sunday and when the
barrel was lowed out into the river on
the Canadian side. two miles above
the falls, there were only a dozen on
hand to. watch 1t was $40 a. m.
when Stephens was cast adrift. Early
sight-seers on Goat Island saw the
barrel bobbing up and down in the
tumbling reachers of the upper rapids,
but none knew that it carried man
about to defy the cataract.
Members of Stephens party fol-
lowed the eask down stream in auto
mobiles. In one car moving picture
operator filmed the progress of the
barrel AS the barrel drew near the
brink, it seemed to stand on end, hesi-
tate a SECOND or two, and then slide
gracefully over the slope. head. fore
most~and at an angle. Its cleaning
black and white stripes could be seen
until it had fallen about half way
down the face of the cataract; then
it was lost to view in the misty spray
Field glasses trained oH~the boiling
waters at the base Of the cataract re-
vealed no sign of the cask.
River Men Shook Heads obviously.
When an hour passed, old rivermen
began to shake their heads obviously.
They remembered that Mrs. Annie
Edison Taylor had made the trip in
forty-nine' minutes and that Bobby
Leach was on his way to the loop OF
the bank, thirty-nine minutes after his
barrel had been set adrift above the
falls
The barrel designed by Stephens,
was six feet, three inches high. It
had strap arrangements inside and an
electric light system.
Stephens is the third to attempt the
barrel trip over the falls.
Mrs. Annie Taylor went over the
falls in 1901 in an oak barrel. She
was AZ years old and now sells souve-
Mrs at the falls1
Bobbie Leach at the age of SO.
made the tumble in a steel boiler in
1918. He was unconscious three days
but survived and now runs an eating
house at the falls.
"If I thought there was a chance
1 would be killed, I wouldn't attempt
to shoot Mia CARA Falls, said stephens
before he went over.
But there isn't chance. 1 will be
assafe in the laundering Waters as
the Indians call the falls, as 1 would
be at home in Bristol, Eng. 1 don't ex-
pect to be as seasick as 1 was coming
from England on the boat.
81 have kissed lions, put my head
in a lions mouth and tickled him
until he smiled. Then, too, 1 have
shaved men in lions den. 1 held
worlds record for. parachute jumping
for some years.
you might think have what you
Americans call the swell head but
really 1 haven't. Some of the things
I have done seem difficult but they
weren't to a man who just doesn't
seem to have been born with the
power to become frightened.
Il have five gold medals and seven
silver ones for acts of peril and l nave
three ordinary war decorations to
show for my two and half years
service in France
There's no secret about the reason
for my plunge. I want the money. l
have a barber shop in Bristol and
good business, but don't like barber
ing. When I have completed the
Ma CARA feat I can go back to English
music halls and lecture and show my
barrel.
'.wish me luck, folks. wish me
1uckl
ITS a good trick if I do 1t, and
I'll pit my money on myself to come
out topside up!"
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