The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini Hunt - Freedom (Part Two)

He decided to work for Dan Rice. Here is Shane Peacock’s description of Dan Rice, “By the late 1850’s Dan Rice was one of the most famous men in North America, a friend of presidents and a wit and performer extraordinaire, his clever political and social jests almost household sayings. During the early part of his life he had been a noted jockey, trained-pig presenter, riverboat gambler and strong-man, but found his true calling as a clown. He established his own circus and for a short time competed with former ally, the Spalding and Rogers Floating Palace, in an acrimonious showboat rivalry. He would become so popular that he actually put himself for the Republican nomination for president in 1868, and was a confidante of Abraham Lincoln, made an honorary colonel by Zackary Taylor, created the One Horse Show (temporarily broke, he put on marvelous circuses using a single horse), was paid the astronomical salary of one thousand dollars per week in the 1860’s and is considered by many to be the prototype for the character of Uncle Sam (Rice had the same beard and often performed in a stars-and-stripes costume). He danced, sang, performed dazzling feats of trick riding and loved to engage in repartee with his audiences. A sort of American court jester, he was more comedian and raconteur than painted clown. The quickness of his mind was legendary.” Hunt performed several jobs for Rice, in an atmosphere of violence and corruption. He apparently carried out his duties efficiently and worked for Rice for six months.

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini Hunt – Freedom (Part One)

Bill Hunt left Port Hope and his childhood life behind. I don’t think that he had any specific plans, because he seemed to travel where ever his mood took him. At first he performed high-wire performances at several fairs, but then he seems to disappear from public sight. In his own recollections, years later, he says that he was involved in several exploits. Much of the stories he told were filled with inconsistencies. His journey started out with a trip to Minnesota, where he lived with his uncle’s family. However, he soon became bored with prairie life and traveled east in search of adventure. He reached the Mississippi and then “floated” southward. Here’s an excerpt from Shane Peacock’s book, “When he reached the Mississippi a near-plague of smallpox was decimating the area, so he had to sneak through the villages until he got down to the water, where he found an abandoned rowboat and floated southward away from danger. In a few days he arrived at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin and heard that a floating circus run by the renowned American showman Dan Rice was docking at Galena to the south, readying itself for its Mississippi River season. This, of course, suited him perfectly.”

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.
(To Be Continued)

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini Hunt... The High-Wire (Part Two)

After the performances, Farini performed at other close by fairs. The walks had taken place during the month of October. During that time Hunt’s father had been in England and could not have interfered with Bill’s activities. With Hunt’s father’s return, everything changed! The father called his son a “mountebank” (Defined as - bastard, bluffer, charlatan, cheat, counterfeit, crook, deceiver, double-dealer, fake, forger, four-flusher, hoaxer, horse trader, impostor, mechanic, phony, play actor, pretender, quack, racketeer, sham, shark, swindler) He said to Bill “Why do you seem quite proud of having disgraced the whole family. I’m astonished and ashamed.” Bill was, of course, taken aback. He didn’t feel that he had done anything wrong. Soon after the confrontation Bill Hunt left the families Hope Township Farm for a life full of adventure! His thoughts are outlined in Shane’s book … “But Farini simply could not accept that the world was wicked: like the circus, it could be a place of wonder and possibility. So he threw away his so-called respectable career, and put provincial little Hope behind him for good. It had plagued and hounded his dreams for too long already.”…“Only his mother came to say goodbye at the Grand Trunk Railroad station in Port Hope.” “Then he left on the next train for Bowmanville. And so a twenty-one-year-old medical man from a respectable family ran away from home and headed for glory”. This chapter of his life ended. He was on to great things!

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.

(To Be Continued)

The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini Hunt... The High-Wire (Part One)

When Monsieur Blondin took Niagara Falls by storm, Bill Hunt’s competitive side took over! Blondin challenged that “anyone else to try it” (rope walking over the Falls)! In Hope Township, Bill Hunt “was practicing”, and becoming very competent. In the nearby Town of Port Hope, the editor and publisher of the Port Hope Guide, Hugh Crea, had an idea that would likely change Bill Hunt’s life for ever! Crea was also the Secretary of the East Durham and Township of Hope Agricultural Societies. The fair was becoming tired and needed something with “drawing power”. He approached Hunt with the idea of “rope walking” over Smith’s Creek (now the Ganaraska River) between two downtown buildings. After negotiations and assurances that Bill could actually complete the performance; a “deal was struck”. Hunt would complete two walks, one at the beginning of the fair and the other at its close. The performance took place as scheduled, but not by local boy William Hunt, but by “Signor Farini”! This was what Bill was now calling himself! The performances were not without flaws. Here is an excerpt from Peacock’s book … “He lifted his other foot off the roof and stood out on the rope, surrounded by the crowd’s silence. The next few steps were slow, but he didn’t shake…he kept going without pause…moving steadily until he was all the way to the centre, directly over the river. If he indeed had been nervous before, he seemed supremely condiment now. But suddenly there was an unforeseen problem. Without warning the rope slipped under his weight and began to sway. The crowd felt themselves falling. Farini halted, steadied the rope with his powerful legs, and continued along the incline to the other building. People looked up at the bottoms of his feet and marveled. It seemed like a dream: a man virtually suspended in midair, a fantasy in three dimensions. When he reached the building on the east side and got onto the roof safely, applause erupted from the crowd like thunder and rang up and down the street. As Bill Hunt reveled in it, on the ground people felt a sense of enormous relief, as though they too were safe now.”

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.
(To Be Continued)