Oscar Williams came to Niagara Falls in June of 1911. On June 25th at approximately 5:30 p.m., Oscar Williams performed a stunt described as the "Slide for Life” near the Upper Suspension Bridge.
Williams took a leather lash (which is a strip that forms the flexible part of a whip) in his teeth and thrust off from the American shore. He skidded along an ascending wire cable which was stretched across the Niagara Gorge to the Canadian shore. When Williams reached the center of the span, the cable had not been tightened enough and began to sag.
With insufficient momentum, Williams became stuck and hung stationary for thirty minutes. He was in the same position until a rope was run out to him. Once he had the rope he was lowered from the cable to the deck of the Maid of the Mist boat in the river below, which ended the unsuccessful journey across the gorge.