As you will see in Number 17, Mr. Olney hinted that Consul-General Barrett
had been over-hasty, and that the Siamese were not to blame.
He made similar remarks about General Lee in Cuba.
He does not seem to want our Consuls to protect our citizens in foreign
countries, and it is perhaps a good thing for the nation that he has no
longer the power to hinder them in the performance of their duties.
Consul-General Barrett's claim proves to have been just and right, by the
action of the Siamese government.
* * * * *
Blondin, the celebrated tight-rope walker, has just died in London, at the
age of seventy-three.
The performance which made him famous was the crossing of Niagara Falls on
the tight-rope.
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.
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