Niagara — Historical and Reminiscent 



On August 6, 1888, Blondin revisited Niagara, the place that 1902 

 made him famous. In the years he had been abroad, others w ap 

 had sought to do what he had done. In July and August, 1865, 

 Harry Leslie, styled " the American Blondin," crossed the 

 gorge on a cable over the rapids. In August, 1873, Signor Bal- 

 leni stretched a cable from Prospect Park to a point on the 

 Canadian side, and made his first crossing on August 25, 1873. 

 Balleni embellished his performance by dropping from the cable 

 to the river by means of a rubber rope, and one day while fasten- 

 ing his balance-pole preparatory to this leap, he lost it in the 

 river, but managed with difficulty to reach land again. 



On Saturday afternoon, July 8, 1876, Signorina Maria 

 Spelterina crossed the Niagara gorge on a two-and-one-fourth- 

 inch rope stretched over the rapids below the railway suspension- 

 bridge. She is the only woman who has the credit of such a 

 performance. Her crossing with baskets on her feet was startling, 

 and she also walked with ankles and wrists manacled. In those 

 days Niagara was far more popular v/ith Southerners than it is 

 to-day, and the Southern society that gathered there set the pace 

 for all pleasures and encouraged the performance of these hair- 

 raising feats. 



Among those who had helped Signor Balleni erect his cable 

 in 1 873 was a painter named Steve Peere, who lived in Drum- 

 mondville, Ontario. One day Peere secured Balleni's pole and 

 fearlessly ran out on the cable. The jealousy of Balleni was 

 aroused to such a pitch that he was caught in the act of trying to 

 cut the cable. One strand had already been severed, and a 

 couple of strokes would have sent Peere to instant death. This 

 incident closed Balleni's career at Niagara. Peere, however, was 

 destined to make his mark, for a few years later he crossed the 

 gorge on a cable only three-quarters of an inch in diameter, a 

 mere thread compared with the rope that Blondin and others 

 had used. Then, too, its surface was hard and slippery. Three 

 days after this feat Peere was found dead on the river bank 

 under the Canadian end of the cable, and it has always been 



419 



