BUT nobody will ever know, except those who took part in the work, how
much ingenuity, patience, and enterprise were expended on that dinner.
It was ready to the minute. The guests all sat down together. There
were turkeys and there were chickens, too. Horsemen had ridden hard
half the night to bring them in. There were plum-puddings, also. Lovely
maidens at Buffalo and Niagara, had been pressed into the service of
stoning them. When Stoker, at midnight, in order to smooth the way, had
telegraphed that “rare flowers and hot-house fruits can be dispensed
with” (he was thinking of New York, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia),
the landlady had looked at me in dismay. “There isn’t a flower in the
whole neighborhood! I’m afraid they are expecting too much,” she said.
“Not at all; it is only Mr. Stoker’s little joke,” I replied, fearing
that at the last moment the entire business might fall through. As
the reader already understands, it did not fall through; but, on the
contrary, was a great and surprising success; for, when Mr. Howe got
up to propose the health of the founder of the feast, he said, “This
has been the first English dinner we have had since we left home, and,
what is more, we have eaten it off English plates,—not those little
dishes and saucers they give us everywhere in America. Not, ladies and
gentlemen, that I have a word to say against the American food,—not
I,—because it is good and abundant; but I do like large plates, and
I love to see the joints on the table and carved before our eyes.”
Everybody laughed at this and applauded; but the cheering increased,
and was followed by “three times three” and the chorus, “He’s a jolly
good fellow!” when Mr. Howe thanked their “host and chief, Mr. Irving,
for his hospitality and kindness that day, and for his energy and
courage in bringing them all from the old country on a tour in the New
World.”
It was nearly six when we left Niagara for the railway station, in
every kind of vehicle, omnibus, buggy, brougham, and carriage. Mr.
McHenry and a party of ladies and gentlemen came to see us off. The
members of the company were loud in their expressions of wonder at
the falls. “So strange,” said one, “to be sitting down to dinner in
view of them.” “What a day to remember!” exclaimed another. Tyars,
Andrews, Terriss, Arnot, and some others, had donned the water-proof
dress, known to every visitor, and explored the regions below the
falls. Terriss had a narrow escape. There were special dangers to be
encountered, owing to the accumulations of ice; and, at the hands of a
party of Englishmen, the dangers were of course duly attacked. Terriss
slipped upon an icy descent, and saved himself from going headlong
into the torrent by clutching a jagged rock, which severely lacerated
his right hand. He played with his arm in a sling for several nights
afterwards.
One of the saddest stories of the falls is the history of a calamity
that occurred almost at this very spot, in the autumn of 1875. Miss
Philpott, her two brothers, a sister-in-law, and Miss Philpott’s lover,
Ethelbert Parsons, went through the Cave of the Winds, and climbed over
the rocks towards the American falls. They were residents of Niagara,
and knew the ground. The sheltered eddies in the lighter currents
under the falls are pleasant bathing-places. The Philpott party took
advantage of them. Miss Philpott was venturesome. She bathed near one
of the strongest currents. Mr. Parsons, seeing her in danger, went to
her rescue. Seeking for a firm foothold for both of them, the girl
slipped and fell. Parsons sprang for her, and both were carried into
the current. He caught her around the waist. The young lady could swim,
and Parsons was an expert; they struck out for the rocks on the other
side of the current. The torrent carried them out. By and by Parsons
swam on his back, the girl cleverly supporting herself with her hand
upon his shoulder. Then she suddenly pushed him away from her,—the
inference being that she discovered the impossibility of both being
saved,—flung up her arms and sank. Parsons turned and dived after her.
They were seen no more until some days afterwards, when the bodies were
recovered at the whirlpool.
Terriss and his friends had more reason than they quite realized
to congratulate themselves upon the fact that they were enabled to
comply with the kindly and considerate programme of the holiday, which
arranged that they should sleep that night in Toronto.