If a man aspires to the highest place, it is no dishonour to him to halt at the second, or even at the third.

William Leonard Hunt was a well known nineteenth funambulist that went by the name of The Great Farini. The Great Farini made a series of very famous tightrope performances at Niagara Falls in 1860, and his feats included crossing a high wire with a man on his back; with a sack over his entire body; turning somersaults while on the rope; hanging from it by his feet; amongst other seemingly impossible manoeuvres.

This, on the other hand, was something rather different.