Desiring to secure her later years financially, and avoid the poorhouse, [Annie Edson Taylor]
decided she would be the first person to ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Taylor used a custom-made barrel for her trip, constructed of oak and iron and padded with a mattress.[4] Several delays occurred in the launching of the barrel, particularly because no one wanted to be part of a potential suicide. Two days before Taylor’s own attempt, a domestic cat was sent over the Horseshoe Falls in her barrel to test its strength to see if the barrel would break or not. Contrary to rumors at the time, the cat survived the plunge and 17 minutes later, after she was found with a bleeding head, posed with Taylor in photographs.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Edson_Taylor
Would you do that? I know I wouldn’t. I couldn’t even have sent my cat over in the barrel. Physical courage (not to mention animal abuse) is not in my makeup. That must be why I admire it in others. Annie was an adventurer even before this, traveling to various cities to work as a teacher, and even residing for a while in Mexico. That must have been unusual for a white, single, middle class woman of her time. Her way of achieving independence might not be so different from the reality TV stars of today.
Weaver's Knot by Glenda Bailey-Mershon 