Evening star., 1920-07-12
HUNTING BODY OF STEPHENS
AT FOOT OF NIAGARA FALLS
|Englishman Warned Not to Dare Rapids In
Oak kBarrel-Leaves Wife and Eleven
Children-Theory of Failure.

had passed, the old rivermen in the
little group of watchers began to
| shake their heads obviously. They
remembered that Mrs. Annie Edison
minutes and that Bobby Leach was
on his way to the loop of the bank
thirty mine minutes after his barrel
had been set adrift above the falls.
The barrel designed by Stephens for
the trip was six feet three inches
high. 1t had strap arrangements in
side and an electric light system.
1t was shortly after noon. four
hours after Stephens began his trip,
when black object appeared in the
river near the base Of the falls.
There 1t is." watcher cried, and
Stephens might have survived the
trip.
Broken Barrel Tells Story.
The dark object was borne swiftly
down stream for some distance.
Then it circled several times and
fioated easily into the eddy. AS it
came to rest on the surface in the
peaceful waters there the watchers
knew that Stephens attempt had
ended in tragedy for the floating OBJ
Ject was a section of the barrel.
Later other pieces of the barrel
hoated down stream and into the
eddy and We're recovered.
Last night searchlights were kept
playing on the water below the falls,
while crowds on the banks continued
to watch for stephens body. At
1880 o'clock practically all of the
barrel had been picked up.
Before he began his trip Stephens
left with Mayor Harry p. Stephens of
Niagara Falls. Ont. for safekeeping a
said he had won in England for per-
forming acts of bravery. Among these
deeds, he said. was shaving man in
a cage of lions.
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
Bobby Leach made the trip in July,
1911. in a steel barrel. Both are still
living.
Theory of Stephens Failure.
One theory advanced to account for
Stephens, failure is that the rampant
of rocks at the foot of the falls
the barrel was pounded to pieces. It
might have ridden out il the water
had been high, as it was when Leach
made his trip.
Erosion at the crest of the falls has
been comparatively rapid in recent
years. the horseshoe shape. which
gave the cataract on the Canadian
side its name. having slowly changed
until it now is more the form of a
triangle with the alex consider
able distance above where the middle
of the horseshoe" was.
This wearing-away process has caused
huge slices of rock to fall. No observa-
tions have been taken to determine their
location at the base of the falls, but a
similar process on the American side
indicates that the tendency is to t-row
up ridge of rock just below the cur
tain of the falls.
Stephens barrel went over the side
of the triangle nearest the Canadian
shore and not far from where Leach
made the plunge.
Stephens GIorfed in Stunts,
Charles George Stephens, who was
killed yesterday in going over Niagara
falls in barrel. was a barber extraor-
binary.
His hobby was performing spectacu-
lar stunts. He had received three rib
bons. five gold medals and six silver
medals. His specialties included kissing
lion. shaving customers and boxing
in lions den and parachute descents
from a balloon.