Blondin, the celebrated tight-rope walker, has just died in London, at the age of seventy-three.
The performance which made him famous was the crossing of Niagara Falls on the tight-rope.
Blondin was a Frenchman, his father having been one of Napoleon's soldiers.
A story is told of him that when he was five years old he saw an acrobat performing on a tight-rope.
He was so pleased with what he saw, that when he got home he stretched a rope between two posts, and, as soon as his mother was out of the way, took his father's fishing-rod, and, using it as a balancing pole, made his first appearance as a tight-rope walker.
He was trained for an acrobat and tight-rope walking, and came to this country with a troup of pantomimists.
While here he visited Niagara Falls, and the idea at once struck him that, if he dared to cross those terrible waters on a rope, his fortune would be made. He made up his mind to try it, and stayed in the village of Niagara for weeks, until he had learned just how it would be possible for him to perform the feat.

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