Niagara Falls 



1859 On the following day His Royal Highness saw M. Blondin 



execute his most terrific feat — that of crossing the Rapids on 

 a tight rope with a man on his back. To leave the study of these 

 eternal cataracts to witness the feats of any rope-dancer, however 

 skilful, is very much like shutting your prayer-book to go and wit- 

 ness a pantomine. Nevertheless, among the Americans Blondin 

 is a great favourite, and many of them actually carry their 

 admiration of his feats so far as to say that unless you see 

 44 Blondin walk " you don't see Niagara. Without being too 

 analytical in searching after motives, I verily believe that at least 

 one-half of the crowds that go to see Blondin go in the firm 

 expectation that as he must fall off and be lost some day or other, 

 they may have the good fortune to be there when he does so 

 miss his footing, and witness the whole catastrophe from the best 

 point of view. One thing, however, is certain, that if you do go 

 to see Blondin, when he once begins his feats you can never take 

 your eyes off him (unless you shut them from a very sickness of 

 terror), till he is safe back again on land. The place where 

 his rope was stretched was about a quarter of a mile below the 

 Suspension Bridge, over the lower Rapids, and about two below 

 the Falls. To do Blondin justice, his skill is so great that he 

 would as soon stretch his rope along the edge of the Falls them- 

 selves as not, but at this place there is no point on either side to 

 which he could secure it. All the waters of Niagara, however, 

 could not make his fate more certain and inevitable than it would 

 be if he fell from the place where his rope was then fixed. 



It was stretched between two of the steepest cliffs over the 

 Rapids, about 230 feet from where the waters boil and roar and 

 plunge on in massive waves at the rate of some twenty miles an 

 hour. To see him venture out on this thin cord and turn summer- 

 saults in the centre, standing on his head, or sitting down holding 

 by his hands, revolving backwards over the rope like a Catherine 

 wheel, is bad enough for nervous people; but on this Saturday, 

 after keeping every one's hair on end thus for twenty minutes, 

 he prepared to carry a man across on his back. The mere 



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