The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-16 00:00:00

DEATH OF LIEUTENANT GALE,
THE AERONAUT.

The Courrier de la Gironde of Wednesday gives
the following details of the death of Lieutenant Gsle :
—" Mr. Gale, who ascended from Vincennes, at a
quarter past six, descended at a quarter past seven in
the commune of Cestas, on a narrow spot of ground
situated between the property of M. Palauque and that
of M. Balguerie. Seven or eight peasants, who were
at work in the neighbourhood, ran and laid hold of
the balloon, the grapnel of which had caught hold of
a fir tree. In a few moments the balloon was lying
quietly on the ground, and the horse was disengaged.
The legs of the poor animal were completely be-
numbed, and it immediately lay down. It soon
afterwards, however, recovered itself, and rising
up, began to eat the grass as if' nothing had hap-
pened. At this moment the wind was blowing
rather fresh, and the balloon, which the efforts of
the peasants could scarcely restrain, having been
freed from the weight of the horse, acquired a con-
siderable ascensional force. Mr. G ile, who was very
quick in his movements and very impatient, gave di-
rections to the peasants which were but badly under-
stood by them as he spoke in English. The aeronaut
hid quitted the car, and was engaged in fastening
some ropes of the balloon which had served to attach
the horse, when, from some order misunderstood by
the peasants, they let go the rope which held the
balloon. The balloon thus freed, ascended in a
perpendicular line, and the branch of the tree
to which the grapnel had fastened broke. At
this moment Mr. Gale, who was standing up, was
thrown down into the ',Atom of the car by the shock.
This fall, added to the escape of gas, caused by the
prodigious ascensional force, must have stunned and
suffocated the unfortunate man, for he was not seen
to rise afterwards, and he was no more visible to the
people assembled. Toe balloon, in this second ascen •
sion, went about two miles, but what took place
during this period no one can tell. A peasant of Cestas
pretends that, as the balloon was passing over a fir
grove, he distinguished the aeronaut lying down
in the car, his head hanging over the side with
the tongue protruding from the mouth, as if he
bad been suffocated. If such be the case, a slight
shock would be sufficient to have thrown him out of
the car, and this account appears the more probable,
as a hole was made in the battom of the car through
which Mr. Gale ascended when leaving the horse.
We must, for the sake of the truth,, mention that, at
the moment of his first ascent, Mr. Gale was not per-
fectly sober ; he had taken more than his usual quan-
tity of spirituous liquor, and his state of excitement
was such that Mr. Clifford was alarmed, and proposed
to ascend in his stead. This proposition was, how-
ever, rejected, and Mr. Clifford expressed his appre-
hension to several persons present. At eight o'clock
the son-in-law of M. Lestange found in a field the
plume of white feathers with which the head of the
horse had been ornamented, and which Mr. Gale had
taken off it and stuck in his own cap. Oa receiving
this information, some persons, Mr. Clifford amongst the
number, went to the place where it was expected Mr.
Gale would have come down in the commune of Cestas,
and after a long search the balloon was found in a field be-
yond the Croix d'Hinx still half full of gas. It was not
torn, and everything was in its place, but no trace of the
aeronaut could be found during the evening. After
some investigations, and as the night was far ade
ranted, Mr. Clifford proposed to empty the balloon
and to carry it back to Bordeaux, thinking that Mr.
Gale, not seeing any one near at the time of his de-
scent, left the balloon to go in search of assistance in
some of the houses near, and where he would stop for
the night. Inquiries were, however, made at some of
the houses, but no one had seen him. On the follow-
ing day, Monday, the searches for him were resumed,
but witnout avail. Yesterday the Procureur of the
Republic received a letter from M. Pelanque stating
that the body of the unfortunate man had been found
un his estate at Cestas. It appeared that at break of
day an inhabitant of the Commune in taking his cows
to their pasture saw one of the animals proceed to a
clump of ferns. and begin smelling at something lying
there. He went to the spot, when he was horrified
at seeing the body of a man, the face completely eaten
away by dogs and wild animals, and the limbs in a
broken and mutilated condition. The place where
the body was foUnd was upwards of a mile from
where the balloon had been discovered. Information
was immediately given to the proper authorities,
and they proceed to the spot and drew up a proses
verbal of the affair, and the body was carefully re-
moved. At eight o'clock in the evening it was
taken to Vincennes preparatory to its being in-
terred."—The Memorial Bordelais of the same
day gives a somewhat different account of the
cause of the death of Mr. Gale. It says :—" At
nightfall Mr. Gale effected his descent between
Pessac and Martignas. He hastened to release the
horse from the ropes which attached it to the car,
and by his expressive gestures (for he could not
speak French) he explained to the peasants who had
ii,sembled that they were to keep fast hold of
the ropes which held the balloon. When he
supposed that his wishes were understood, Mr.
Gale again got into the car, in order to open the
valves and empty the bullion as promptly as possible.
Finding some part of the cord age impeded his move-
ments, he drew a long knife horn his pocket to cut
it, when the peasants, not knowing the use he was
going to make of the weapon, and alarmed at his
excited manner, all at once let go their hold. The
balloon, relieved from the weight of the horse. and a
portion of the ballast, then rose again with prodigious
rapidity, carrying with it the unfortunate aeronaut
suspended by his hand., which clutched one of the
ropes. The position was frightful. Only the energy
of despair could have prolonged it for a few instants.
Mr. Gale no doubt must have soon lost his hold and
fallen from a great height."

The following particulars are from other sources :
This was the first occasion the late Mr. Gale ever
acended with a pony, and it was a little remarkable
that, prior to leaving England, he expressed himself
in terms strongly disapproving of the absurdity of
the thing. When the French aeronaut, Poitevin,
went up on a horse's back, and more especially when
Mr. Green ascended with his Lilliputian nag, he was
recommended to try the same draw. He, however,
objected, urging as his reason for declining, that there
was nothing novel in the experiment, as it had been
done years ago, and, furthermore, that much pain
must necessarily be occasioned to the brute that went
up. With such a strong objection, therefore, it was
thought that he could never have been induced to
make what is termed an equestrian ascent
Accompanied by Mr. Goulstone (who has a large
share in the balloon), and Mr. G.)ulstone, jun., the
deceased aeronaut left London a few weeks since to
make a series of ascents from Paris, Bordeaux, and in
Spain, at the rate of 901. an ascent. We are informed
that the conditions did not imp ,se upon him the aacend-
ing with a pony ; that is thought to have been a new
stipulation. No trifling inducement probably was
offered him to make such an ascent; and money being
everything to the poor fellow, he overcame his ob-
jections, and lost his life. Although he was not a very
old aeronaut in practice, ho was a very hazardous one ;
and by introducing that perilous feat of descending
from an upper car to a lower one, and discharging
a battery of maroons, he obtained considerable
notoriety_

The following is an extract from a letter received
from Mrs. Goulstone, the wife of Mr. James Gaul-
stone, floorcloth manufacturer, of Marlborough-ter-
race, Old Kent-road, and proprietor of the Royal
Cremorne Balloon, who, with his son, Mr. Arthur
Goulstone, accompanied the aeronaut on his Conti-
nental excursion :

" Bordeaux, Sept. 11.
"Poor Gale is no more ! The cause of his death
was as follows:—He made an ascent on the Bth,
mounted on a horse. All went off quite safe ; and he
made a descent at a place called Auguilles, where the
people (all French) inform us they secured the bal-
loon with ropes, taking off the horse, and requesting
Gale to get off ; but, not understanding what he said,
they endeavoured to pull him off by force, but being
in a great rage, he made them let go the balloon by
taking out his knife to cut himself loose, when he
shot up with great force. He was afterwards found
quite dead. After our first day's search I offered
a reward for the discovery of his body; but I must
not now enlarge, as I will write all particulars after
his funeral, and you must use your best mode of in-
forming his wife and family of his death, so as to
prevent their being shocked by reading the accounts
of it in the English papers. Please inform Mrs.
Gale that I am getting the freemasons and the public
generally at Bordeaux, to raise a subscription for hzr
and her family's benefit, and intend making myself an
ascent in the balloon in two or three days. The
Mayor of Bordeaux, Monsieur A. Fleury, has pro-
mised to attend the funeral, at the Protestant burial-
ground."

The melancholy news reached Vauxhall Gardens on
Saturday evening, through the medium of Mr. Wie-
land, watch-maker, of the Walworth-road, and Mr.
Graham, the aeronaut, and Mr. Robert Wardell, the
lessee, with his usual kind feeling, immediately of-
fered the "Royal Property" for a free benefit for
Mrs. Gale; Mr. Wardell's generous intentions were
communicated to Mrs. Gale by Mr. T. R. Lewis and
Mr. James Ellis, late lessee of Cremorne Gardens,
at which a benefit is also advertised. Lieutenant
Gale was in his 59th year.
The life of the unfortunate deceased was not with-
out many peculiar incidents, two or three of which
may be read with painful interest at this moment.
Gale was a native of London, and early in life exhi-
bited much aptitude for the dramatic profession, in
which, while he continued to belong, he made a most
respectable progress, performing such parts at the
Victoria (then the Coburg), Astley's, and: the Sur-
rey theatres as were termed the juvenile characters,
with occasionally the tyrant in the Eastern spectacles.
lie was remarkable fur his skill in making up, as it is
technically termed. With the late Andrew Duerow,