Saturday Scenes

On the 24th of October 1901, Annie Edson Taylor clambered into a custom-made barrel and had a friend set her adrift on the Niagara River. She was the first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel (although she sent her cat down in the barrel first, just to be sure it was safe).

Annie Edson Taylor in Wikipedia

The Niagara River currents carried the barrel toward the Canadian Horseshoe Falls, which has since been the site for all daredevil stunting at Niagara Falls. Rescuers reached her barrel shortly after the plunge, and Annie was discovered to be alive and relatively uninjured, save for a small gash on her head. The trip itself took less than twenty minutes, but it was some time before the barrel was actually opened.

After the journey, Annie stated to the press:
“If it was with my dying breath, I would caution anyone against attempting the feat… I would sooner walk up to the mouth of a cannon, knowing it was going to blow me to pieces than make another trip over the Fall.”

There are some wonderful photos of her (complete with barrel and cat) at The Niagara Falls Public Library Website.

Meanwhile, on the 24th of October 2009, the following people took the plunge and submitted photographs to Saturday Scenes:

Take a moment to say hello to all of our terribly dedicated SatSceners:

• Pewari
• Korwhai
• jmorby
• raumsinn
• RAFairman
• sarahfenn
• akaSylvia
• Sithefire
• elibrody
• adhon
• ElshaHawk
• vaxanta
• NevilleFenn
• drewbenn
• pixelfreund
• sparc

Saturday Scenes is a great way to see the world from someone else’s point of view! Taking part is easy:

1. Take a photograph on a Saturday
2. Send it to @SatScenes on Twitter
3. Wait for the webpage to get updated
4. Oooh and aah over all the great submissions from all over the world!

So take a photograph this weekend and send it to @Satscenes!

On the 17th of October in 1814, in the quiet storerooms of a brewery in St Giles, there was a sudden explosion.

Damn Interesting • Beer Flood Claims Nine Souls

A huge vat which held over 135,000 gallons of fermenting beer succumbed to the wounds of age, and let its bounty loose with explosive force. The impact caused several other vats in the same building to rupture, and almost instantly the combined 323,000+ gallons of ale crashed through the brick structure and poured into the London parish of St. Giles, a slum area.

The impact of this massive wave of beer was disastrous. Men and women were caught in the wave, tossed against walls and buried in debris. The beer completely destroyed two homes, and flooded many others. A wall at a nearby pub crumbled under the force, burying a barmaid there for several hours.

It sounds pretty horrific but not everyone seemed to recognise it immediately as a disaster.

Of the nine people who lost their lives, eight drowned. The ninth died of alcohol poisoning.

Not that anyone who submits to SatScenes would ever succumb to such temptation!

Take a look at the photographs from Saturday, October 17 2009 (and not a drop of beer in sight):

Take a moment to look at the twitter streams of our submitters:

• os4000
• sarahfenn
• apgphoto
• jmorby
• elibrody
• raumsinn
• robcdillon
• sparc
• embee
• carocat
• PCurd
• adhon
• tradingnothing
• mousewords
• StacyJMT
• drewbenn
• RAFairman
• Dramagirl
• pixelfreund
• musecrossing
• Korwhai
• Neal55
• sithefire
• akaSylvia

Would you like to see your photograph featured here?

Simply take a photo on a Saturday and tweet it to @SatScenes! Every week I retweet the Saturday Scenes and then collect them all for a special post here. We’d love to see yours.

What were you doing on the 10th of October? Did you (have to) buy new shoes? Did you run into any friends in the street? Did anyone invite you to their house for dinner?

The Diary of Samuel Pepys: 10 October 1662:

Up, and between eight and nine mounted again; but my feet so swelled with yesterday’s pain, that I could not get on my boots, which vexed me to the blood, but was forced to pay 4s. for a pair of old shoes of my landlord’s, and so rid in shoes to Cambridge; but the way so good that but for a little rain I had got very well thither, and set up at the Beare: and there being spied in the street passing through the town my cozen Angier came to me, and I must needs to his house, which I did; and there found Dr. Fairbrother, with a good dinner, a barrel of good oysters, a couple of lobsters, and wine.

His feet, by the way, were so swollen because the day previous he had worn new hard boots which caused him pain. The things we do for fashion: Wer schön sein will, muss leiden (those who wish to be beautiful must suffer)!

Luckily it’s a proven fact that people who submit scenes on a Saturday are naturally beautiful. And wonderfully talented at photography, as well! Take a look:

Make sure to find out more about all of our stunning submitters by checking out their twitter feed:

• Dramagirl
• sparc
• domr
• ingridf
• UKMelia
• sarahfenn
• NevilleFenn
• pixelfreund
• akaSylvia
• pewari
• happl
• RAFairman
• elibrody
• drewbenn
• jmorby
• tradingnothing

It’s easy to take part:

1. Take a photograph on a Saturday
2. Upload the photograph
3. Send a tweet to @SatScenes with the url

I’m looking forward to seeing your Saturday Scene in the next edition!

Captain Jack was a Modoc Indian chief living in lands that now span the California/Oregon border in the US. His real name was Kintpuash and he lived from 1837 to October 3, 1973. He is famous as the chief of the Native American Modoc tribe during the Modoc War.

The Modoc tribe had been pushed back from their lands at Lost River to the Klamath reservation where they were badly treated by the native inhabitants. Captain Jack led his people back to their lands at Lost River and then retreated to the lava beds where they successfully held off the United States Army for several months.

Kintpuash on Wikipedia

Captain Jack’s advisers, apparently not attuned to relevant differences between Modoc and Euro-American culture, suggested that the Army would leave in response to killing their leader, General Edward Canby. Jack hoped, to the contrary, for a peaceful solution to the conflict, and entered into negotiations with a Federal peace commission.

During the months-long negotiations, the Modoc hawks gained in influence. Jack was shamed, his opponents even dressing him in the clothing of a Modoc woman to symbolically strip him of his manhood. To bolster his influence, Jack agreed to their plan: he called for a meeting with the commission (of which Canby was by then the chair) with the intention of killing them all.

During a conference on April 11, Captain Jack and several other Modocs drew pistols upon a pre-arranged signal, and killed two leading members of commission; Captain Jack fatally shot Canby and Boston Charley dispatched Californian clergyman Reverend Eleazar Thomas.

The murder had far from the desired effect, and Canby’s successor, General Jefferson C. Davis, brought in over 1000 soldiers as reinforcements. On April 14, the Army again attacked the stronghold, this time forcing the Modoc to flee.

On October 3, 1873, Captain Jack was hanged for murder.

The moral of the story is… um… to make sure your advisors know what they are talking about? And there’s nothing wrong with wearing a skirt.

Meanwhile, moving right along to happier times in 2009! (I swear, I’ll find a happy ending story for next week’s post.)

This week, we have a lot of happy photographs, that’s for sure. Take a look at these scenes from Saturday, the 3rd of October!

And here’s our list of happy participants:

• Vaxanta
• RAFairman
• NevilleFenn
• elibrody
• michrueg
• apgphoto
• akaSylvia
• SarahFenn
• UKMelia
• Pewari
• TradingNothing
• pixelfreund
• Neal55
• ElshaHawk
• mousewords
• StacyJMT
• akrabat
• carocat