Rochester, Monroe, NY Democrat & Chronicle Sun Sept 8, 1889 OVER NIAGARA'S BRINK Brodie Claims to Have Passed the Horseshoe Falls Steve Couldn't Tell A Lie The Notorious Bridge Jumper Weakens When the Justice Placed an Affidavit for Him to Sign -- The Question -- Did He Jump New York, Sept. 7 - A dispatch from Clifton, Ont., says BRODIE and his party arrived there last night. It included Ernest GEROLD, John LEDGER, John McCARTHY and William E. HARDING and several newspaper correspondents. They put up at the Waverly House and registered under fictitious names to avoid suspicion. BRODIE's suit was placed 200 feet above the Canadian Falls last night ready for use. Inflated rubber tubes, ropes, etc., were also placed near the Maid of the Mist landing. BRODIE left the hotel with the party at 4 A. M. John McCARTHY and Ernest JEROLD and BRODIE went to a point 200 feet above the falls. BRODIE stripped and had his body padded with cotton batting, and then put on the rubber suit, which was inflated fifty-two inches around the waist and seventy-five inches around the chest. The head-gear was also inflated, while two steel bands protected his body. At 5:30 BRODIE, with his paddle, entered the water. He caught the current, waved his paddle to JEROLD and McCARTHY, and a few seconds later was shot over the center of the Horseshoe Falls and luckily, he was shot with lightning rapidity over the outside of one of the falling volumes of water and was quickly lost in the mist and foam. He was buried from view for nearly two minutes, when a black speck covered with a thick white coating was seen bobbing and jumping to and fro in the boiling cauldron of rushing, gurgling waters. In a short time BRODIE was caught in the rushing waters and carried at a brisk pace toward the American shore, and then all of a sudden he was hurried toward the Canadian shore where John LEDGER and others had ropes ready to draw him from the water. LEDGER was stripped and swam out 200 feet with a rope fastened to his waist, while HARDING held the other end on shore. LEDGER after several attempts reached BRODIE, fastened the rope to the iron bands around his waist and then swam ashore and assisted in pulling the swimmer to land. On BRODIE being lifted on the rocky shore he was quickly stripped. Brandy was poured in small quantities on his temples, while he was rubbed and chafed, but he was insensible, and blood oozed from his mouth, nose and ears, probably from the shock. For twenty minutes BRODIE lay until ammonia was applied to his nostrils, and he began to shiver and gesticulate with his hands. His injuries are confined to many bruises, and a sprained back and ankle. BRODIE WEAKENED Niagara Falls, Ont., Sept. 7 - BRODIE says after entering the river he weakened and would have given everything in the world if he could have got once more on terra firma. He attempted to swim ashore by using his paddles when the swift current swept him back and turned his feet towards the brink of the cataract. When he saw it was impossible to get out of the current he felt the same as a man that was to meet death and prayed for dear life, and every sin he had committed was plainly before him. Just as he came to the brink he became unconscious through fright and remained so until he struck the water churned into foam at the base of the falls. The force with which he struck temporarily brought him to, and he then knew no more until he was lying on his rubber suit at the water's edge. John LEDGER, who rescued him, is a member of the life-saving crew at Brighton Beach, Coney Island. Chief of the Ontario police, McDOUGALL, arrested Steve BRODIE at the Grand Trunk depot this afternoon as he was about to take the 4 P. M. train for New York, for attempting suicide by going over the falls this morning. He will have a hearing before Police Magistrate HILL to-night. BRODIE was this evening brought before Police Magistrate HILL, who read the charge made against him. BRODIE said he did not attempt to commit suicide by going over the falls, but to show the world that the trip could be made, and also the usefulness of his rubber suit for life saving. The police magistrate said he did not believe BRODIE went over the falls at all and that the whole thing was gotten up to humbug the people, and if he did not go over the falls to say so and he would discharge him, but if he persisted in saying he went over the case against him would go on. BRODIE said: "If I tell you I did not go over will you let me go!" The magistrate said "yes." BRODIE then said: "Well then I did not go over and I am off." The magistrate said that was not enough and wrote out an affidavit declaring that BRODIE did not go over the falls and asked him to sign it. BRODIE refused, saying he was a Catholic and could not perjure himself. The magistrate then went on with the prosecution. Several witnesses were called and corroborated the story they were told by BRODIE and his party. The magistrate summed up the evidence and bound the prisoner over in $500 bonds on his own recognizance to keep the laws of the Dominion, especially that of not attempting to go over the falls for one year. BRODIE signed the document and left immediately for the American side. He seemed very nervous and frightened through-out the proceedings. ----<>---- WAS IT A "FAKE" Lockport, Sept. 7 - Special advices from Niagara Falls are to the effect that BRODIE's jump is another fake. Color is given to this by the dissimilarity of the reports sent out from the falls of his plunge. The fact that it was secretly conducted by two or three men also gives it a suspicious look. It is probably of the same "fake" order as GRAHAM's barrel plunge and was concocted to gain dime museum fame. Find all the transcribed Monroe Co., NY Early News articles at http://www.rootsweb.com/~nymonnws/