The Contributor.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 3, 21 April 1894, Page 7

The Contributor.

MR W. H. MATHIBSON IN THE PULPIT. NIAGARA FALLS. ' During my stay at Buffalo I hao. the most singular experience that befell me during my travels that of undertaking the role of preacher. It came about in this way. A gentleman with whom I had business, learning that X was staying over Sunday, explained that he was a minister as well as a carriage-builder, and invited me to do duty for him on the morrow. He had, it appeared, belonged to the Quakers, but finding them too exclusive, had, along with several others, established a church on purely undenominational lines, and built what called a moving tabernacle. The organisation sought to reclaim the lapsed masses by visiting the poor and needy and gathering them to the services. Their place of worship consisted of a large structure built in sections and capable of being readilv shifted from place to place. I found" the place crowded to the door, and -was introduced to the congregation as a visitor from that far-off colony of New Zealand. I will not detail my address —suffice it to say that it was of such a nature as to admit of a good deal of incidental reference to New Zealand, its history and people. Leaving Buffalo I visited the great natural wonder of the world the Niagara Falls. I was landed at a miserable station, and had to walk half-a-mile to reach the Falls, passing along the street of the town called into existence by the tourist traffic. I had my first view of the Falls from Observation Point —a little promontory enclosed by a wall. Anthony Trollope wrote —“ Of all the sights on this earth of ours that which tourists travel to see I am inclined to give the palm to Niagara.” and all privileged to witness it will acquiesce in the novelist’s verdict. I was on the American side of the Falls, and standing immediately over them. A slight breeze was blowing, causing the spray to fill the air like a Scotch mist, and descend in graceful festoons of silver, and ever as it fell in the brilliant sunshine new and lovely combinations of colours were formed —miniature rainbows, which faded away, only to be replaced by others as beautiful. Far below, too, sounded majestically the roar of the vast volume of water as it struck the rocks in its onward course. I shall never forget the experience. "W hen my eye got accustomed to the scene I saw a paddle steamer with the appropriate name of Maid of the Mist. I made my way down to the jetty by a series of steps—you can take a cable car if you prefer to do so —and boarded the steamer. You have to wait until she is loaded, and you pay one dollar for the privilege; and if careful and you want to save getting drenched to the skin you part with another shilling for the use of an oilskin suit. “Nothing for nothing” is evidently the motto of the men in charge. 1 can assure you it detracts very much from one’s enjoyment to be so robbed —I can call it nothing else. But to the lover of the grand in nature this annoyance is quickly forgotten, and the sight from the water or whirlpools amply repays one for the outlay. You require to be a good sailor and to have plenty of nerve, otherwise you cannot enjoy the trip, a,s the captain goes perilously near the Falls — near enough to be all but sucked in, and you heave a sigh of relief when you reach land once more, up the cable car. This works on the principle of gravitation —one up and the other down, and it is kept running nearly all day and night. I took a horse car from here two miles down the river to see the whirlpool rapids —fare, five cents., the only reasonable fare I paid that day; but I learned that this was run by the Government, who had to step in and put a stop to some of the robbery that was going on. At the terminus of the tramway line was a large hotel, and I was directed by the conductor of the car to what

looked from the road like a right-of-way. I went down to a wall and was politely shown to a seat in a lift. These lifts are a great feature in the States. You come to, say, a 13-storey building, and at the door'of the main entrance you find the elevator boy standing ready. He asks “ Where ?” You reply “ Top,” and you are shot up like a rocket. In a few seconds the pace slackens and you are landed without the least jar or jerk. The average American hardly waits to allow it to come to a standstill, but is off like a shot, being always in a hurry. You get so accustomed to this that you think nothing of it. Of course you pay nothing, and when asked by the man above-mentioned I naturally took my seat. As I was the only passenger 1 was quickly let down some 150 feet, and walked out on to a place that had evidently been cut out of the rocky side, and I had a look at what by many is considered as great a wonder as the Falls the whirlpool or rapids as they are called. The river is compressed to about a fifth of its natural width, and is perfectly indescribable in its fury. Fancy, if you can, 1,500 millions of cubic feet of water rushing past, you every minute. No human being could tell its depth, but where it met with any obstruction it shot up 20ft. in the air and came down white as snow. I was shown the very place Captain Boynton, supposed to be the most powerful swimmer in existence, was drowned. The caretaker told me that great trees, houses, or anything that, came down when they got in there were never seen again, or, if seen, were smashed into matchwood miles further down. It was too awful to contemplate long. The very sight of it made one shudder. When I took my departure I was asked for my ticket. I had none —another 50 cents. This is the way you are had at every turn. This got so noised abroad that the Government had to buy the so-called rights of several people, and put in their own paid servants, who only received a nominal rate for the various privileges. So bad had this become that Mark Twain, writing on this subject, says : “ Niagara Falls is one of the finest structures in the known world. A gentleman who was with me said it was customary to be disappointed with the falls, but subsequent visits were sure to set that all right. He said the first time he went the hack fares were so much higher than the falls that the falls appeared insignificant. But that is all regulated now. The hackmen have been tamed, numbered, placarded, and blackguarded, and brought into subjection to the law, and dosed with moral principles, until they are as meek as missionaries. There are no more outrages and extortions. That sort of thing cured itself. It made the falls unpopular by getting into the newspapers ; and whenever a public evil achieves that sort of success for itself, its days are numbered. It became apparent that either the falls had to be discontinued or the hackmen had to subside. They could not dam the falls, so they did the hackmen.”