The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1871-10-27
DRATH III TRE AIR.

| A correspondent of the New YorI
World gives the following particular
OF the death of Professor Wilbur, thC
Rronaut: "At about four O'Clock in the
afternoon the imitation OF the balloon
was commenced, and sc the bag sWeiled
out almost to bursting, and struggled
to be free, anybody was on the qta
1 vire; those remote from the spot strain-
ing their necks, climbing into carriages,
| and even upon the fences, to see the
car. IL had been announced that the
editor OF the Orange County linton
would accompany Professor Wilbur in
his ascent, and great things were ex-
paced from the report which his WELL
known ability IS q descriptive writer
gave every reason TO believe would be
forthcoming in the next issue of his
newspaper. was standing beside the
professor, laughing and holding a
necessarily disjointed conversation
with him, for he was busy with pre-
partitions for his flight. He had Just
nodded his head and said laughingly,
"Well, goodbye, old fellow, III see you
again soOn.7 Then Mr.. Knapp stepped
into the car, and the professor, who had
hold of the rope fastening the car to
the body of the balloon shouted. Let
got But he had spoken too soon and
was unable to reach the car, but still
unwisely Kept the rope In his hand and
endeavored to climb to his place, sue
ceeding only so far as to get one arm
over the rim of the basket, where he
hung dangling and struggling. His
motions and the fact that the basket
came III contact with q rope which had
fastened the balloon to the earth while
1t was being inflated, upset the ear
when IL was about twenty-five feet
from the ground, and Mr.. Knapp fell
stunned to the ground. But there was
no time for caring for him, for terror
held everybody spell-bound. A shout
Of admiration went up from those who
were too far distant from the scene to
know that an accident had befallen the
Adventures, and who. supposed that
the assent was being made sans
cOneretsHps. Bull to those IN the i'm
mediate vicinity of the car the sight
was an awful one, and for q moment
everybody seemed parAlized with ter
ror, and stood rooted to the spot with
ont tutoring cry or word. The bal
loon, lightened by the fall of Mr.. Knapp,
shot upwards with dreadfully increased
velocity, and g scream of terror which
chilled the blood Of the hearers came
down from the upper air where the
doomed eronaut hung utterly hopeless
of escaping death. At my side stood q
woman who, as I afterwards heard,
was the professors wife. Her eyes
were bursting from their sockets, and
her face pallid and CHASTITY with fear.
She clutched the air as If for support,
and with one hand grasped my arm,
still looking upwards at the balloon,
which, swifter than an arrow, shot
through the air. Up, up, it went
growing smaller ana smaller in its
flight, aud then, with increased veloc-
ity, it gave q sudden start, and shot yet
faster towards the clouds.
"Then speck was seen far up in the
air, growing larger and larger as it fell.
20, my Cod cried the woman who
chung to me with iron grasp, 'he will
die-he will be killed. Yet her eyes
remained fixed upon that falling body.
At first 1t seemed like the stick OF
light; then 1t was doubled up like q
ball, then seemed to unfold, and whirl
about with q gyratory motion, with
hands and legs spread out. 1t seemed
an age while the man was falling, for
before he loosened his grasp the balloon
must have been at least q mile from the
what an age to that poor
wife who watched her husband rushing
her and death with the speed
OF light. When about half mile from
the ground the body ceased its gyratory
assumed perpendicular posi-
ton, and came down head first. 1t
struck the earth some distance from us, |
and then rebounded, falling again with |
In q few feet Of where it struck. Then, |
from paralyzed fear, the crowd broke |
forth into shrieks of terror, women ran |
wildly about screaming and actually
tearing their hair, and q rush was made |
for the spot where the man had struck
the ground. There was an indentation
not less than eight or ten inches deep,
and filed with blood and brains which
had burst from the skull when, like a
cannon ball let drop from an immense
hight, it crushed into the earth. The
dead man was then taken up and car
ried to the Albert House, where the
poor wife, who had often safely trav-
ersed the air with her husband, cared
for it.
The excitement in the town was OF
the most fearful and intense description,
as may readily be believed. Those who
had come ont for pleasure returned
home in sorrow, and the town wore the
aspect of place which had been visited
by some fearful calamity in which it's
own interests had suffered. There was
no more of the fair that day, and the re-
m entrance of the dreadful occurrence
will be a story told by the inhabitants
when those who witnessed it shall long
since have died."