LURED TO DESTRUCTION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2405, 21 January 1909, Page 6

LURED TO DESTRUCTION.

NIAGARA’S FATAL FASCINATION.

To people on this side of the Atlantic mention of Niagara recalls only one thought—the magnitude and magnifrcance of the falls. To those on the other side, however, it has a second, and that a, sinstor, significance. It is, in fact, another Dean Bridge, only on an enormous scale, where many people have been lured to self-destruction. There is evidence to show that with most of these death was not the result of choice, but that of impulse; that a large proportion of suicides were persons who came to the falls ■merely as visitors, with no other motive than to sec the mighty cataract, and were led to kill themselves by some sudden and' uncontrollable desire fostered by the rushing waters. Wherever suicides, are of frequent occurrence the current at that point is swift with a wavy motion. In tho wave will be found bright green colors that repeatedly and monotonously dance and flash n the sunlight, irresistibly holding the eye. Joined with this "is the hoarse and changeless song of. the cataract. So powerful is the spell .of the waters at Terrapin Point that men ■have been known to become suddenly insane and go dancing to their death. Here "the green walls of the Horseshoe Falls incessantly shimmer. Unknown disturbances send the spray in fascinating clouds towards the zenith at fatally regular intervals. If elsewhere the waters call, here they may be said to command. It is a curious fact that, nobody lias ever committed ./suicide at Niagara who has seen the goige and the whirlpool before seeing the falls. It is easy to see w-liy this might be a significant fact with reference to tho hvpnotic theory; for to see these fearful things first is to prevent any illusion that the conditions above the falls might suggest. It is not difficult to realise how the waters above the falls might promise peace to the world weary. But what peace can be hoped for when one looks into the abvss at the foot of the cataract? Indeed, .for this reason visitors subjected to nervous disorders are often cautioned by their physicians, if they must visit the falls, to make the trip through the gorge first. O^e susceptible to hypnotic influences will not be so open to suggestions of .rest when he sees the diabolical sight presented by the river below the falls.