Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-05-11

trip" yesterday, WIS an assumed balloon &C
count with the balloon omitted, and that w
ought TO make another t.~ial--on paper.
There are are two way Of looking .
things, one from the individusl mind, an'
another from the popular point VI view. w
have tried the former; perhaps we ought Il
attempt the latter.
Our friends" that means the man wht
does not positively hate us and the VOL uaI
who does not believe we are totally deprave d
quite yet-declare we should treat the aeriel
voyage seriously, and give some idea Of
what actually occurred.
Well, we will-at least we will try.
THE sTARTINa.
At a quarter past six in the evening,
the eronautic quartette in the Enterprise, .
the most symmetrical balloon we remember
to have seen, measuring 6fty.fve by forty.
four feet, and requiring over forty thousand
cubic feet Of gas-rose from the inclosure at
the corner of Twelfth-street and Central.
avenue, after great deal of trouble and
annoyance from the awkwardness and rude
ness Of the spectators, and spread its wings
for celestial fight.
We expected to strike the chimney of the
Commercial Hospital, and would have done
go, but for the very timely casting-out of
some ballast; causing the balloon to rise
above the building in fine style.
Had we encountered the chimney, the
balloon would have received such shock
that we doubt five could have gone up at all.
But "the Gods take care Of Cato" and so,
in few seconds, we were several hundred
feet up; moving rapidly in south. easterly
direction, with the great city and tens Of
thousands of uptuTned faces below,
THE sCENE BELOW.
The scene was beautiful--grand, perhaps.
Our eye took in the vast panorama; the
entire city and country beyond; the Ohio
and Licking Rivers; the hills of Kentucky,
and the villages dotting the surface of the
earth for many miles around.
Every object was distinct, but dwarfed.
The houses were in miniature; the trees and
streets extremely diminutive; the canals
like ribbons of water; the knots and crowds
of people reduced to pigmies.
Every garden was visible, and the flowers
and shrubs appeared to make up a little
Paradise; while countless flags seemed
to futter from every window and every roof.
We heard the shouts of the people, and
saw the women waving their handkerchiefs,
which were as small bits of white paper to
our departing eyes.
OUR SENSATION.
We felt very pleasantly but very calmly
no thrill, no anxiety, no nervousness even.
1t seemed in q minute after the ascent as
If we had always been in balloon.
Many persons suppose feeling of dizziness
must be caused by looking down from SO
great hight. We do not know the feeling;
but one of the party who could not, he said,
look out of a third story window without
experiencing such dizziness, declared he was
entirely clear-headed at the altitude of a
mile.
Every feeling is lost in sentiment of in.
tehectual curiosity, half familiar wonder
at the beauty unfolded before your ewes.
There is SO much to see, there can be no
WEAKNESS, and as you are rapidly passing
over new scenes, your attention and interest
are ever newly awakened.
You have little disposition to talk; you
desire to admire only; to imbibe the spirit of
'the grand panorama, and breathe the glori.
Gus atmosphere by which you are sur
rounded.
The earth still shrinks away from you, but
you seem moveless as marble. You would
VOW you were fixed in the air, if you did not
look down and observe the ground creeping
away. No air fans your cheek; no breeze
blows; for you are going with the wind.
All is SO calm and pure and fresh, your
being lulls as in divine dream, when Love
end Religion meet and embrace each other
On the Shore of Sleep.
How trauquilized and spiritualized you
arel In escaping from the Earth, you seem
to have freed yourself from its disappoint-
ments, its sorrows, its affections.
painful planet" you think, "you COM
mand me no more. lam above you. Ihave
passed from the power by which you held
me. Thank Heaven, [ am free"
The Past is forgotten, as you sail above the
Globe, and the Future is shut out. The
Present alone remains, and in that only
Contentment rests.
You reach the philosophic plane at once.
You do not wish TO do; you are satisfied to
be. Through the passing moment you
breathe, and the unborn minute is as an un.
| born age.
|
HAIL COLUMBIA"
While still low, we passed over the New
port Barracks, and as we did so the garrison
band struck up "Hail Columbia" We
heard the stirring notes far more clearly
than if we had been on the ground; and as
we saw the Stars and Stripes floating
proudly in the air, we confess to throb Of
patriotism we could not control.
The sounds came to us in melodious waves
and we faneied we saw in the clear ether
the history of nation struggling to be free,
and the second battle for the principle Of
liberty and right.
| CONTINUANCE or THE VOYAGE.
In a minute more, the Kentucky hills
were below us, seeming five or six feet high,
and the large trees ike sprigs OF spruce and
cedar, such as European peasants wear in
their bosoms on festal days.
On we went faster and higher, now re-
crossing the Ohio, and then again going
over to the Kentucky shore.
We passed over jamestown, KY, at dis
tance below of mile and quarter, and
heard very plainly shouts from men we could
not see of "Hurrah for the Union p "Fhe
Stars and Stripes foreverl"
We threw out more ballast, and we rose
rapidly, moving to the eastward; the csun-
try being visible for many miles around.
In few minutes we had reached a hight
of about two miles, and the air feeling chilly,