COWBOY STUNTS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 136, 10 June 1924, Page 7

COWBOY STUNTS

WILD WEST IN LONDON

SWIMMING THE FLOODED

THAMES

TRAGEDY NARROWLY AVERTED.

(DSItBD PEESS ASSOCIATION.—COPtRIGHT.)

(AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLB ASSOCIATION.)

(Received 10th June, 9 a.m.)

LONDON, 9th June.

Extraordinary scenes were witnessed by thousands of spectators on Kew Bridge, when two cowboys tried to swim the swollen Thames -on horses. "They were swept off in midstream and narrowly escaped drowning. As the result of this episode a horse race across the lhames, in which thirty-nine of the Wembley cowboys were to participate has been abandoned.

_ Floundering through four feet of Thames mud, the two cowboys, Aldrich and Walker, urged their horses into deep water, where they were caught by the strong pood current and swept like corks downstream. The crowd, which had hitherto regarded the affair as a joke, realised fhat the men and horses were fighting for their lives. A cowboy with a lasso, and Walker's sister, who is ii champion swimmer, made desperate efforts to reach them with a boat. Walker was rescued, exhausted, and his horse was lassoed and tied to the boat Meanwhile Aldrich, who was unable to swim, was unseated and disappeared downstream. When his head. appeared, Miss Walker, plunging in, piloted the cownoy to the shore.. His horse reached the bank.

Kew Bridge is on the direct road from Richmond in a thickly populated area: This part of the Thames is subject to flood during heavy rain. The water is collected in the vicinity of Brentford Eyot, and when it comes'away it causes the river to run very swiftly.