DEATH ROLL OF NIAGARA.

Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 56, 28 June 1884, Page 9

DEATH ROLL OF NIAGARA.

The melancholy death of Captain Webb iia? led to the publication in one of the New York jdnrnals of a record of t<ie most memorable incidents and disasters connected with the Niagara Falls. The number of suicides at the Falls has been very large. On one occasion a man leaped from the bridge, 192 ft., into the curient, and is believed to have died before reaching the water. For 50 feet he fell like a plummet. He then began to turn over, and dropped apparently lifeless on the water. A woman who committed suicide tested the. current by throwing in her p.uasol bofore gathering her skirts together for the plunge. In another case a mm calmly undressed and went into the flood, strongly and deliberately swimming to the gidiij r verge. A brave swimmer tried to rescue him, but the man who sought death sped onwards to it with rapidity on seeing he was t'oliowed. The torrent caught him, and he was at once beyond help. On one oei: ision there was a double suicide, the couple being a middle-aged man an I woman, about whom there had been some scandal, and who resolved to give the world still more to talk about in their death than they had done in their life. An ingenious Yankee once showed how the divo might be made in perfect safety. In taking the jump he wore a harness over his shoulders. To it was attached a wire, running loosely over a cylinder on the bridge. 'J hit kept his feet downwards, and he successfully accomplished the leap, afterwards reaping considerable profit by the transaction. Te.rible crimes have taken place at the Falls. One, comparatively recent, has never been solved. A body, with a handkerchief over the face, was found one morning. Round the neck was a rope, tightly drawn and knotted at the back, and the end frayed. In the head was bullet hole. Strange accidents are also reported. A lady stooped to pluck a flower on the brink of Table Hock, and was up dead from the rocks below. Another lady stooped for a cup of >v,iter, lost her balance, and was out of reach and ovei the Falls almost before her amazed husband knew what had happened. In 1875 a very sad and foolish net- i. lent occurred. An engaged couple went he'iind the Falls, into the C ive of the Winds, without a guide. The lady actuaMy sought to bathe in a pool which even the guides never visioe I. Her lover lost hi.life in 'Mideavouring to save hers. One very pathetic and dramatic incident is recorded. A young man caught up a charming child, who was watching the tumbling waves. *' Now, Lizzie," he playfully said, "I am going to thro.* you into the watai,*' and he swung her backwards and forwards. The child screamed, struggled, and slipped from iris hands. He gazed alter her, an-i realising what he had done, leaped into the torrent. Rescue, of course, was hopeless, and he perished. Remarkable escapes have now and again been recorded. One was that of a murderer. The sheriff was close belind him, th river in front, an I only tiie wires of thu old bridge at Lewiston to help him across. Hand over hand he began the passage. His hands quickly blistered, and thiMi they bled. Again and again he rested his arms by hanging by Ins legs. At length he reached the opposite bank, and lay panting full an hour be fore he continued his flight. On one occasion a painter was at work on Second Sister's Island, when he fell into the water. He was carried towards the Falls, and when only 40ft. from them, caught on a rock. After a time of ter rible anxiety he wa3 &ived by lfopcs manipulated from the &io're. A boatman was being hurried along towards rapids, when he tluevv out a little auch<<i <ie had with him. It scorned like play ing for his life with grim death as Ikleard tue anchor bump continually ttgadist the rocivs wi'tnuut grounding.

At length his fearful anxiety was relieved by its catching a grip, but all night through the boatman was tosse.i about while he held the anchor-rope. When morning dawned he was saved by tliO9e on shore.