Wichita Eagle

HE WALKS ON THE WATER.

Professor Oldrieve and His Ingenious Aquatic Shoes.

Ed Hanlan, the oarsman, gained some little notoriety a few years ago by doing what he called "walking on the water," although he was by no means the first man to attempt it. Each foot was supported by what was in reality nothing else than a small boat. These floats or "shoes," as he called them, were fully six feet long, and as wide as the spread of his legs allowed. For some time no one else took hold of the idea. Finally, during the summer of 1888, Charles W. Oldrieve, a high wire performer at Ocean Beach, decided to see what he could do in the aquatic pedestrianism line.

His first shoes were not much smaller than Hanlan's, but he has been experimenting constantly since and now uses a pair only two feet two inches long, ten inches wide and fourteen inches deep.

On the bottom of each one are three wings or paddles, hung on hinges so that when the shoe is pushed forward in the water they shut flat up against the bottom, and so that the slightest backward motion opens them fully. They thus offer enough resistance to prevent the walker from pushing one foot backward while the other goes forward. Without them little progress could be made. The bottom and top of the shoes are made of wood, with an opening in the latter just large enough to admit the professor's foot. The sides are of sheet copper and each shoe contains an air tight compartment furnishing the buoyancy necessary to prevent the performer from sinking.

Oldrieve's first performance of note consisted of a seven mile walk to Nahant, Mass., which he did in three hours and a half with both wind and tide against him. He has made many trips since then, several times being obliged to abandon his shoes and swim for his life.

His greatest feat so far was a walk down the Hudson river from Albany to New York. He did it on a wager of $500 that he could walk the distance in six days. He left Albany at 9:30 a. m. on the 19th of November, 1888. The first day he made twenty-four miles, and at the end of the third day had reached Poughkeepsie. There he was very nearly worn out, as well as discouraged, and, to make matters worse, a physician, who was called in, told him that it would be sure death for him to continue under the existing conditions of wind and weather.

After a long sleep he felt better and decided to go on, and on the evening of Thursday, the fourth day, he went ashore at Garrison's. His shoes were completely enveloped in ice and he was sore and lame, but the next ebb tide saw him again on the water, and at the turn of the tide he had reached Sing Sing. Saturday morning he reached a point just off One Hundred and Twelfth street, and there he was taken aboard the boat.

A few days after completing that long walk young Oldrieve succeeded in walking from the Grand street ferry in New York to the Annex docks, Brooklyn, in 45 minutes, winning the bet of $100 which had been wagered by Steve Brodie.

He also walked the rapids at Lawrence, and there met with an accident, for he stumbled and struck a rock, breaking two of his ribs. He is all right now, however, and expresses great hopes for his future.

"I am fully determined," said he, "to try the Niagara rapids, and feel confident that I can get through them all right. I went up and took a look at them, and I think that there is a great deal better chance for a man walking to go through them than there is for a swimmer. At any rate, I am going to try it, and if I get through those rapids alive I shall make quite a good deal of money, and after that I will not be afraid of any kind of water except, of course, a waterfall or a whirlpool. I shall wear my large shoes in walking the Niagara rapids, as I think they will be safer for that rough water than the small ones.

"If I succeed in that trip I shall go to England and attempt to cross the English channel. There I shall use the small shoes, for if I took the big ones over there I'm afraid the English would laugh at them and accuse me of wearing boats on my feet.

"Yes, those are about as small as shoes can be made in which I can walk with any degree of safety. I am getting another pair made, however, which are only eighteen inches long, but I don't know now whether they will work well or not."