The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1920-07-14
REDWOOD MINNESOTA 4,
Engfsllnan Lost
at Niagdf ) ssns s',;,
3RD PERSON TO ATTEMPT GOING
OVER FALLS IN DARRELL is
KILLED. BODY NOT FOUND.

Niagara Falls, July 11-Charles G.
Stephen of Bristol, England, was killed
today when he went over the Horse
shoe falls in barrel. The cask in
which he made the trip, though built
of stout Russian oak slaves and
bound with steel hoops, was smashed
like an eggshell on the jagged rocks
at the base of the cataract. Pieces of
the barrel We're picked up near the
banks on the Canadian side but Ste
phens' body has not been recovered
River men say it may not come to the
surface for week or ten days.
Large Family Survives.
Stephens was SO 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 lee
ture tour of England if his trip was
successful.
Bobby Leach, who went over the
Horseshoe falls in 1911 told Stephens
before he started that his trip would
be failure. Leach predicted that the
barrel would not withstand the drop
of 158 feet but Stephen refused to be
dissuaded from the venture. Leach
was among the spectators who watch
ed the start of Stephens fatal trip.
Few knew that Stephens was to
make the trip today and when the bar
rel was towed 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
reaches of the supper rapids but none
knew that it carried man about to
defy the cataract.
Party Watches Cask.
Members of Stephens party follow
ed the cask downstream in automo-
biles. In one of the cars moving
picture operator filmed the progress
of the barrel AS the barrel drew near
the brink of the falls it seemed to
stand on end, hesitate a second or two
and then slide gracefully over the top,
head foremost at slight angle. Its
cleaning black and white stripes could
be seen until face of the cataract when
it was lost to view in the misty spray.
A quarter of an hour passed, then half
an hour Field glasses trained on the
boiling water at the base of the catarct
revealed no sign of the cask. When
the hour had passed the old river men
in the little group of watchers began
to shake their heads obviously. They
remembered that Mrs. Annie Edison
Taylor had made the trip in 40 min
utes and that Bobby Leach was on
his way to the loop of the bank SO
minutes after his barrel had been set
adrift above the falls.
Barrel, Six Feet High.
The barrel designed by Stephens
was six feet three inches high 1t had
strap arrangements inside and an cleo
trio light system.
Stephens is the third to attempt the
barrel trip over the falls. Mrs. Annie
Edison Taylor went over in October,
1901 in an oak barrel and Leach made
the trip in July, 1911 in steel barrel.
Both are living.
Before he began his trip, Stephens
left with Mayor Harry P. Stephens
of Niagara Falls Ontario, for safe
keeping, a vest covered with medals
which he said he had won in England
for performing acts of bravery.
Among these deeds, he said, was shay
ing man in a cage of lions.