Incidents of Niagara.

Pahiatua Star and Eketahuna Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 124, 2 September 1887, Page 2

Incidents of Niagara.

Tbe numbe r of suicides at the Falls | lias been very largo. On one occasiou a man leaped from the bridge. I!*2 ft., into the current, and is belu-Ted to have died before reaching the water. For 50 ft. he fell like a plummet. lie then tiegan to turn over, and dmp|>ed apparently lifeless on the water. A woman who committed suicide tested the current by throwing in her para*' 1 before gathering together her skins for the plunge. In another case a man calmly undressed, and went into the flood, strongly and deliberately swimming to the giddy verge. A brave swimmer tried to rescue him, but the niau who sought death sped onwards to it with rapidity on seeing he was followed. He was soon where it was necessary for him to put forth another stroke. The torrent caught him, and lie was at once beyond help. On one occasion there was a double suicide, the couple being a middleaged man and woman, about whom there had been some scandal. Strange accidents are also reported. A lady slopped to pluck a flower on the brink of the Table Rock, and was taken lip dead from the rocks below. Another lady stooped for a cup of wat« r. and lost her balance, and \v a. out of reach and over ‘.lie Falls almost before her amaze 1 husband knew what had hapjieiu-d. In 1875 a very strauge and foolish accident occurre d. An engaged couple went behind the Falls, into the Cave of the Winds, without a guide. The lady actually sought to bathe m a pool which even the guides never visited. Her lover lost Ins life in endeavouring to save hers. One very pathetic and dramatic incdeut is recorded. A young man caught up a charming child, who was watching the troubling waves. * Now, Lizzie,' he playfully said. ' 1 am going to throw you in the water.' and he swung her backwards and forwards. The child screamed, struggled and slipped from las hands. He gazed after her, and. realising what he had done, leaped into the torrent. Rescue of course was hopeless. and he perished. Many more remarkable escapes have now and again l>een recorded. One was that of a murder. The sheriff was close behind him, the river in front, and only the wires of the old bridge at I-ewuton to help hail across. Hand over hand he began the passage. His hand quickie blistered, and tlu-y bled. Agaiu anil again lie rested his arms by hanging by his legs. At length lie leeched the opposite bank, and lay panting full an hour before resuming his flight. On one occasion a painter was at work on Second Sister s Island, when he fell in the w ater. He was carried towards the I alls, and when only forty feet from them caught a rock. After a time of terrible anxiety he was saved by ropes manipulated from the shore. A boatman was !«ing burned along towards the rapids, when he threw out a little anchor he had with him. It seemed like playing for lag life with grim death a* he heard the anchor bump continually against the rocks without groundi g. At length his fearful anxiety wa* relieved by its catching a gnp. but. all night through tbs boatman was tossed aUmt while he held tl e anchor rope. \\ heu morning dawned he was saved by those on shore.