A HAZARDOUS FEAT

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 13, 2 April 1908, Page 37

A HAZARDOUS FEAT

Charles Blondin, the French ropewalker, though he died mi bed at a ripe old age in 1897, performed feats that no other man has ever dar>ed to emulate. There a re few things in the way of 'daring that some one win not repeat, but Blondin was the cleverest as well as the most venturesome of his profession. His teats were tas^s too groat for the skill as well as the courage of his imitators. Blondin's great, trip aver .Niagara Falls in 1859 was the most startling sensation of thai time, a thing talked of for a generation afterwards. It was witnessed by a crow a of thousands. Though Blond'in. crossed on the rope several times, his greatest exploit was when he carried over on bis bacK another man. 'lo the spectators, unused to the acrobat's feats, it seemed impossible for him to keep his swaying footing with the burden on xus back. L a rge sums were laid that he would fail. Blon-' din's own feeling, however, was one of complete conlid6llCe - " ' ■ ./,,!!(« But the feelings of the man on his back ! "That man had never walked a slack rope, had never been suspended in such a dreadful position before, and he had to depend for his safety absolutely on the movements of another. Many years afterwards this man gave an account of his experience to a newspaper. >*■ You ask what it feels like to be twelve hundred feet in mid-air over*" a raging torrent,' -he said. 'I cannot describe it better than by saying that the first sensation was an overwhelming one, in which it was luard to separate awe from fear. 'Uien there came what m a y best be termed an, absolute cessation of all feeling. Before starting from the shore Blondin gave me that injunction which almost every mother has given to the boy at her knee when giving him his first lesson in life. 4 " Look up, Harry ! " he said. 'My arms were about his necK while my legs were slung in hooks at his waist. Out we went over that horrible gulf. I heard the roar of the water below, and the hum. which ran through the crowd "of~loo, ooo spectators. As wo cleared the brink the hum ceased. There was not one person perhaps in, that .vast throng wiho did not feel a greater strain than was ours. Unable to resist, I stole one glance down at the black waters. It seemed for an instant as if I were poised above the entire • universe. There was, a feeling of immensity such as I lxad never felt before and have never felt since. Then I • looked up. Blondin walked on steadily, pausing for one brief moment at each point where the guy ropes joined the main cable. The line was a trifle steadier at those places and gave him a chance to assure himself of his balance.. There was a wide space in the middle of the rope to which it ha*d ' not been possible to attach guy lines. At the last resting place before we reached . this slender swaying span, Blondin said -to ire— " Harry, you are no lon-

.ger Colcord ; you are Blondin. Until I clear this place De a part of me, mind, body, and soul.. If I sway, sway with me. Do riot attempt to do any balancing yourself. If you do we shall both go down to our death." • I had dismounted while he was taiKing to me. and stood with one foot on the line and . both hands on his shoulders. I climbed back into my perch .and Blondin started' across tlie unstable part of the line. I had cleared my mind of all feeling save one. I tried to "think that instead of -being poised in mid-air, with nothing but a Manila, rope between me and. destruction, I was shut up with "Biondin in a confined ■ space where the . thought of a fall was farcical. ' Blondin swung to the light and then to the left. Each* time I went with him .as though we were moulded into one piece with immovable parts. I knew afterwards that -the line beneath ius feet, was swaying horribly and that to the people on the shore -it seemed that time and again our bodies were parallel to the rushing Niagara rapids below. Blondin's marvellous skin, however, • and the precision with which- he mani-pulated)-ibis pole brought us eacli time to tihe upright. The centre was passed, all but a Jiew feet, lupndin was now running just as a boy runs in order the better to' keep his balance when walking, a railroad track. We were nearing . the point where the joining place of the first guy line from the opposite shore offered us" a moment's breathing space. Blond'im's , foot was planted on the knot which joined the lines. My breath came naturally again. At -that instant the rope was jerked from beneath his feet. How he caught it again, and saved__us I never knew. ' Before I could realise much of anything he. was running again. Some gambler interested pecuniarily in our deaths had cut the guy rope, hoping to hurl us to the river. ' - •He did not dare repeat ~ the attempt, and "when the second point of connection was reached we .rested safely. Blondin stood there like a man of marble, though the agony in Ms mind had- brought great heads of sweat to his brow. We reached the shore finally, but before wo were well there we could see the people in the crowd, even at a distance from the edge of the gulf, begin tq stretch out their arms as If they could " draw us from the peril. What the feeling of men was may be shown by the action of the then president , of the New York Central" Railroad. He presented me with a cheque for 1000 dollars for crossing with -Blondin, and then offered me a like amount if I would promise never to do it again.'— Exchange.