Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1920-07-12
STOUT CASK CRUMPLES n n.
LIKE An EGGSHELL ON i"
JAGGED ROCKS Below
Body of Daredevil Not Yet
Recovered-Was Barber in
Bristol, Eng.-Leaves Wife
and II Children-Few Knew
Trip Was to be Made-Movie
Camera Films Progress Of
Barrel

Niagara Falls, N. Y, July H.
Charles G. Stephens of Bristol, Eng
land. was killed today when he went
over the Horseshoe Falls in q bar
rel. The cask in which he made the
trip though built of stout Russian.
oak slaves and bound with steel
hoops. smashed like an egg-shell on
the Jagged rocks at the base Of the
cataract. Pieces of the barrel were
picked up near the bank on the Can
adian side, but Stephens body has
not been recovered. Rivermen say it
may not come to the surface for Q
week or ten days. 4
Tonight searchlights were kept
playing on the water below the Falls.
while crowds on the banks continued
to watch for stephens body. At
1890 o'clock virtually all of the bar
rel had been picked up. but there
still was no sign of the victim of the
tragedy. ..,
Leaves Wife and II Children .
Stephens, who poasted the title Of
daredevil" was So years old and
has a wife and eleven children id
Bristol, where he was a barber. He
served three years in France with the
British army. He had planned to
make lecture tour of England II his
trip was successful.
Bobby Leach, who went over the
Horseshoe Falls in 1911, told Steph-
ems before he started that his trip
would be a failure. Leach predicted
that the barrel would not stand the
drop of 1853 feet, but Stephens refused
to be dissuaded from the venture.
Leach was among the spectators who
watched the start of Stephens. fatal
trip.
Only Few Knew Of Trip
Few knew that Stephens was to
make the trip today and when the
barrel was towed out into the river
on the Canadian side two miles above
the falls, there were only a dozen on
hand to witness the act. 1t was STU
this morning when Stephens was
cast adrift. Early sightseers on Goat
Island saw the barrel bobbing up ana
down in the tumbling reaches Of the
upper rapids, but none knew that re
carried a man about to defy the cat.
aract.
Members Of Stephens party fol.
lowed the cask down stream in auto
mobiles. In one Of the cars a NOV
ing picture operator filmed the prog
ress of the barrel. AS the barrel
drew near the bring of the falls. 1t
seemed to stand on end. hesitated a
second or two, and then slid grace
fully over the Stops. head foremost
and at slight angle. Its cleaning
black and white stripes could be
seen until it had fallen about half
way down the face of the cataract,
it was lost to view in the misty
spray.
Watch for Barrel
Men stationed below the falls on
the Canadian side watched the barrel
as it fell and prepared to catch 1t II
it foated into the eddy above the Ca
madam Maid of the Mist" landing.
It was there that the barrels IN
which Leach and Mrs. Annie Edser
Taylor made the Falls trip in former
years had been recovered.
A quarter of an hour passed, then
half an hour and an hour. Field
glasses trained on the boiling waters
OF he hoc nf hn rofo - ,
no sign of the cack. When an hour
had passed the old rivermen in the
little group of watchers began TO
shake their heads obviously. They ;,
remembered that Mrs. Taylor had
made the trip in 10 minutes and that
Bobby Leach was on his way't to the
loop Of the bank 80 minutes after his
barrel had been set adrift aove the
Falls.
The barrel designed by Stephens
for the trip was six feet. inches
high. 1t had strap arrangements In
side and an electric light system.
Oxygen was carried which, Stephens
said, would keep him alive for sew
eral hours If the barrel became
caught in a back eddy under the
falls.
stephens Is the third to attempt
the barrel trip over the falls. Mrs.
Annie Edison Taylor went over In
October 1904 in an oak barrel, and :
Bobby Leach made the trip in July
1911 in steel barrel. Both survived.
The last man to shake hands with
Stephens before he began his trip
was Mayor Harry P. Stephens. OF
Niagara Falls, Ont. To the. Mayor
Stephens entrusted a vest covered
with medals which he. said he had
won in England for performing acts
of bravery Among these deeds. he
said. was shaving q man in . cage :,
of lions