Gentleman Jim and Niagara Falls - Part One

This Article first appeared in the April 20th, 1971 edition of “Look Magazine.” It is reprised here in its entirety for the 86th anniversary of “The Great $15,000.00 Dollar Barrel Roll over Niagara Falls.” A contest set up in 1934, during the Depression, that was held for only the one time. The article was written by Mary Allison King when she was fifty-four years old. It's a classic tale of a teenage girl coming of age as she accompanies her father on his quest for winning the prize money. Her father, David Nathaniel Lynskey, is the only person ever to be awarded a cash prize for going over Niagara Falls in a barrel and surviving. It also shows a hint of what rural America was like during the Depression and the determination people had to persevere during a time in our history where so many had to struggle. Most of us today seldom have to go through such hardships in our lives. The only way for us to experience it, understand it, is by reading the accounts of people who lived through it. This is one little piece of our history in Americana. The Article is called:

Gentleman Jim and Niagara Falls     By Mary Allison King

Hi.
     My name is Murray.     Well, actually, at the time of this story my name would have been Mary Allison Lynskey. From the North Carolina Lynskeys.     Everyone calls me Murray though, because my Papa always called me Murray ever since I was able to listen.     My Ma said Pa could never quite remember names and dates so he had to use what the Schoolmarm said was his way of using the technique called, “Word Association.”     At least I didn't have it as bad as my brother. The name Murray is at least close to my real Christian name of Mary.The day after my brother was born, my Pa called him Dempsey.You see, my brother's birth name is John. Back at the turn of the Century, Jack was commonly used as a nickname for John. The boxer, Jack Dempsey, was still a household name around the time my brother was born, so my Pa, associated John with Jack and then Jack with Dempsey. So John is called Dempsey to this very day by everyone who knows him.Except Ma never did. Rest her soul.     I figured Pa was so forgetful about names and such because, on a count of, he was an inventor. He had a lot to think about. A lot of knowledge was stored up in that amazing brain of his.     You probably haven't heard of him because of any actual inventions he created. Though up here in the township of Little Pigsty North Carolina, he is a legend.He's a legend right alongside the other good fortune our town of Little Pigsty is best known for. We raise the best oinkers in the whole State. Right up here in God's beautiful country.Mister Hennessy down the road, has won the blue ribbon four years in a row now for the fattest hogs at the North Carolina State Fair.     The population sign out on the paved road coming into town proclaims, “We have more Prize Winning Curly Tails than Gentiles!”     Most Northern folk don't get it. But if you say those words with a true Appalachian Mountain dialect it kind of rhymes. Sort of.     The reason why you might have heard of Pa is, he being the last and only winner of the $15,000.00 prize money of safely going over Niagara Falls and living.     Living is a key word here, because ten people died during that year, the year of our Lord, nineteen thirty four. So after that first time, they quickly outlawed the event.     It was during the Great Depression you see. People were doing all kinds of crazy things to earn money.That actor fellow, with the beautiful dreamy eyes, Michael Sarrazin I believe his name is, he made one of those moving pictures about some of the crazy things people did for money during that time. I think they called the movie, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?”     Funny name.     Funny because it's not about horses at all. It's about people dancing in a big circle without rest until they can't go no further and collapse to the ground. Then they're out of the money.The last two standing, they win it all.     I heard some of those dancing folks died too.     Well, that's not what Look Magazine is paying me to write about. They want to know about the only winner of the $15,000.00 barrel roll over Niagara Falls.     The rules were simple. Either buy or build a barrel of your own design, go over the falls in it, and live to tell about it.     Simple enough, I'd say.     After my Pa had sent the entry form in, he decided he needed to go see the waterfalls for himself. He wanted to estimate the height and distances, he said.     “There's not a dress maker's tape long enough in this World to measure those Falls” he told me. “We'll just have to guess at it. I just need to see for myself what we're up against.”     To my surprise, he said I was going to go with him. I've never been to the big city before. Or any city outside of Little Pigsty.I was really excited about the opportunity.Yet, it did have its drawbacks.Like all the other girls in town, I was what you city slickers would call a country tomboy. Us girls had to do all the same chores as a man, so we kinda grew up with a little chip on our shoulders you might say.I know of five boys in town that I personally beat in arm wrestling.On Sundays though, we were all lady-like.I'm not bragging here, but I was told more than once that I was the strongest and prettiest girl in town growing up. My blossoms grew out real fast at an early age and were larger than most of the other girls. And I had all of my own teeth too.The reason I'm telling you all this is, when it got near time to start making arrangements to go and see the Niagara Falls, my Ma got me all riled up, saying I had to start acting like a lady.She insisted, while I was away, that I wear dresses instead of the corduroy trousers I always wore.I only had the one dress and that was for Sunday's going to Prayer Meetings.Ma bought some real fine white cloth though and sewed up two nice dresses for me before we left.What got my goat the most was, I was too embarrassed to wear the darn things because of how short they were. You could see my legs down below my knees, bright as day!It was quite embarrassing. Not like what these girls wear today.All the same, it did feel like Christmas all over again to me.Pa also got into the fun of dressing me up by asking the local cobbler to measure my feet. I had a pair of nice new shoes to go with my two white dresses for the journey.I was so happy.
This is,I Can't Put The Whole Story Here NowIt Is Over 8,000 Words Long!Jim Hauenstein,
And,

“His tremendous struggles caused such a commotion that our position could only be compared to that of men shooting Niagara in a cylinder at night.” - Frank T. Bullen -

That is my story and I am sticking to it!

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