Tuesday

24 October 2017

— a sky of pure pewter

Good Morning All,

As usual after doing the history list above, I dicked around for a good hour looking up some of the items. I mean, how could I resist "1901: Annie Edson Taylor first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel.”?

Nor was I disappointed. Annie turns out to be a real pip! She was born in Auburn, NY, one of eight. Briefly married with one son, the son dying in infancy, the husband shortly thereafter. I was delighted to learn she became  a school teacher, an occupation not all that unlike going over Niagara in a barrel. In Bay City, Michigan, she opened a dance studio. She and a friend took off for Mexico in search of work, found none, and returned to Bay City. 

Here’s what Wikipedia says about her moment of glory:  

"Desiring to secure her later years financially, and avoid the poorhouse, she decided she would be the first person to ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Taylor used a custom-made barrel for her trip, constructed of oak and iron and padded with a mattress. Several delays occurred in the launching of the barrel, particularly because no one wanted to be part of a potential suicide. Two days before Taylor's own attempt, a domestic cat was sent over the Horseshoe Falls in her barrel to test its strength to see if the barrel would break or not. Contrary to rumors at the time, the cat survived the plunge and 17 minutes later, after she was found with a bleeding head, posed with Taylor in photographs.

On October 24, 1901, her 63rd birthday, the barrel was put over the side of a rowboat, and Taylor climbed in, along with her lucky heart-shaped pillow. After screwing down the lid, friends used a bicycle tire pump to compress the air in the barrel. The hole used for this was plugged with a cork, and Taylor was set adrift near the American shore, south of Goat Island.

The Niagara River currents carried the barrel over the Canadian Horseshoe Falls.  Rescuers reached her barrel shortly after the plunge. Taylor was discovered to be alive and relatively uninjured, except for a small gash on her head. The trip itself took less than twenty minutes, but it was some time before the barrel was actually opened. 

After the journey, Annie Taylor told the press: 'If it was with my dying breath, I would caution anyone against attempting the feat…. I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a cannon, knowing it was going to blow me to pieces than make another trip over the Falls.’”

The irony is, her retirement plan was not a financial success, partly because her manager ran off with her barrel. She hired private detectives, who located it in Chicago, but it disappeared again. She was once on a stage coach held up by Jesse James; at the time she had $1,000.00 hidden in her dress and didn’t lose it. She talked about taking a second plunge, attempted to write a novel, worked as a clairvoyant, and provided magnetic therapeutic treatments to people. At the age of 83, she ran out of hours and is buried in the “Stunters Section” of Oakwood Cemetery in Niagara Falls, New York.

Sometimes when I get down on present-day America, I read about someone like Annie and feel reassured America will survive this difficult period. And for sure, if I could realize one of my favorite fantasies of inviting 100 people from the past 100 years to a dinner party, Annie would be one of them.

Go Well and Stay Well,

Bhekaron

P.S. Two snaps of Annie: