BLONDIN 0824-1897), French tight-rope walker and acro bat, was born at St. Omer, France, on Feb. 28,1824, and died in London on Feb. 19, 1897. His real name was Jean Francois Gravelet. When five years old he was sent to the Ecole de Gym nase, at Lyons, and, after six months' training as an acrobat, made his first public appearance as "the Little Wonder." He especially owed his celebrity and fortune to his idea of crossing Niagara Falls on a tight-rope, I,Iooft. long, i6oft. above the water. This he accomplished, first in 1859, a number of times, always with different theatric variations: blindfold, in a sack, trundlinz a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying a man on his back, sitting down midway while he made and ate an omelette. In 1861 he ap peared in London, at the Crystal Palace, turning somersaults on stilts on a rope stretched across the central transept, 17of t. from the ground. His final performance was given at Belfast in 1896.