CELEBRATING A BIRTHDAY BY GOING OVER NIAGARA FALLS.

Northland Age, Volume 3, Issue 7, 18 September 1906, Page 8

CELEBRATING A BIRTHDAY BY GOING OVER NIAGARA FALLS.

—* — On October 31, 1901, Mrs. Anna Edson Taylor, a school-teacher from Bay City, Michigan, celebrated her forty-third birthday by going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. She was the first person, either man or woman, who ever went over the great falls and lived to tell the tale.

Her object was notoriety, which she believed would enable her to get a music-hall engagement, and thereby raise money to pay off a mortgage on her ranch in Texas.

The barrel was 44ft. high, and 3ft. in diameter, a-nd it had been previously sent over the falls with a cat in it as a test, both the barrel and the cat withstanding the shock. They went over the horseshoe falls on the Canadian side, with a sheer drop of 158 ft. The barrel being lined with cushions, the woman was fastened to her place by straps, and at five minutes past four she started 23,000 spectators witnessed the barrel go over the falls. At 4.40 p.m. the barrel was captured and pulled on to the rocks, and the cover broken open. Mrs. Taylor immediately raised her arm, and waved her hand, and the discovery that she had come through alive caused great cheering. It was necessary to cut away a portion of the barrel, which was half filled with water, to get the woman out.

She had a cut 3in. long at the back of her right ear, her shoulder was strained, tend she suffered severely from shock. The doctors said she would be well in a few days.

On being interviewed, she said : “I struck the rocks three times. Water seemed to come in the barrel everywhere. I was conscious when I was going over the falls, and lost my senses just for a minute. I would rather face a cannon, knowing I should be blown to pieces, than do it again."