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 - "Champion of Niagara"

Farini confronted Blondin and publicly challenged him, “but the great man (Blondin) … pretender seeking publicity,” Farini was not deterred, and within a single day he had secured financial backing. With this in place he set to work and made arrangements to have "an enormous rope shipped to him at the Falls". This began Farini’s journey to challenge and best the “Hero of Niagara”! Farini chose a spot to start his rope. His high-wire would be over 1800 feet long, much longer than Blondin’s. The large cable was eventually strung across the gorge after much work and difficulty. At one point Farini had to walk out on one of the guy wirer in order to attach more guy wires. He needed to stabilize the cable. While all this activity was happening, Farini’s soon to be rival was unaware of what was happening as he was out-of-town performing. Here is Shane’s description of Blondin’s return, … “When Blondin returned to Niagara from Ohio on the 13th he must have been more than a little surprised to see the Ferry Grove completely enclosed and a huge cable drooping over the gorge. The papers wer saying that the young man who had been challenging him two weeks before, so unknown but so full of fire, was going to cross it the day after tomorrow... This Farini fellow was for real.”

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.