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.
Then he set about getting the scheme well advertised, and securing plenty of money for himself if he succeeded in accomplishing it.
On August 17th, 1859, he made the trip across the Falls in the presence of 50,000 spectators.
He was not satisfied with merely walking across; he crossed again blindfolded, and then carrying a man on his back, and once again wheeling a barrow before him.
In the summer of 1860 he crossed once more in the presence of the Prince of Wales, and carried a man on his back, whom he set down on the rope six times, while he rested.
News has reached us that a great avalanche of snow has fallen upon the Monastery of St. Bernard, and has destroyed the left wing of the building, though happily without costing any lives.
The Great St. Bernard is a mountain pass in the Swiss Alps, and the monastery was built in the year 963 by a nobleman named Bernard de Menthon, for the use of pilgrims on their way to Rome.
As the years have passed away, the pilgrims have become tourists, but still the monastery's doors have been open for all who asked for shelter there. There is sleeping accommodation for one hundred people, but in bad weather as many as six hundred guests have been sheltered at one time.
Snow avalanches like the one which has destroyed the wing of the monastery are of frequent occurrence there. An avalanche is a mass of snow, which, getting loosened from the mountain heights, falls down to the valley, often bearing masses of rock and earth with it. As it sweeps down the mountain side it carries all before it, and when it is finally checked in its course, it smothers everything around in its mantle of white.