NEARLY DROWNED

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIV, Issue 1038, 10 June 1924, Page 5

NEARLY DROWNED

COWBOYS IN ENGLAND.

ATTEMPT TO CROSS THE THAMES

(By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received June 10, 8.00 a.m. LONDON, June 9. " Extraordinary scenes were witnessed by thousands of spectators at Kew bridge, when two cowboys tried to swim the swollen Thames on horses. They were swept off in mid-stream and narrowly escaped from drowning. As n result of this episode, the horse race across the Thames, in which 39 Wembley cowboys were to participate, was abandoned. Floundering through four feet 01 Thames mud, the cowboys, Aldrich and Walker, urged their horses into the deep water, where they were caught by a strong flood current and swept like corks downstream. The crowd had hitherto regarded the affair as a joke, but they now realised that the men and horses were fighting for their lives. A rowing boat in which was a cowboy with a lassoo and Walker's siste*r, who is a champion swimmer, made desperate efforts to reach them. AValker Mis rescued and the exhausted horse lassooed and tied to the boat.

Meanwhile Aldrich, who is unable to swim, was unseated and disappeared downstream. When his head reappeared, Miss Walker, plunging in, piloted the cowboy to shore. The horse reached the bank.—A. and .N.Z. cable.