Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1873-10-17
NUMBER 6.
Up In a Balloon.

The old saying, "go up like rocket and
come down like stick" was never more
strikingly illustrated than in the case OF
| the Graphic balloon, which came to such
final and ridiculous ending on Monday.
The aeronauts rose with their provisions,
with their boats, with their blankets, with
their European guide-books, with every
thing necessary to long and pleasant or
rough and uncomfortable voyage across
the Atlantic. The carrier pigeons were
| aboard, and the gushing young men who
accompanied Mr. Donaldson had their
notebooks and pencils in hand They
scared away amid the loud cheers of the
multitude, and, like sensible mariners,
struck directly out for "the continent"
Donaldson was happy; Lunt and Ford
were feverish; the pigeons were scared.
| Ford wrote dispatches and dispatched the
pigeons with them. The notes were hope
full, even exuberant. They told of DON
aldson singing "Do They Miss Me at
Home" and declaring that the ''dream of
! that the "easterly current had been struck,
and that everybody was happy.
| But about noon the balloon began to
encounter difficulties. 1t rained; it blew;
it knocked the big bag around as we'll
swung bat would toss a ball. The monster
descended; it swept over the trees and
bitches, and hedges, and finally Ford and
| Donaldson leaped out, and fortunately
gained the ground uniniured. Lunt
went up again, but finally jumped from
the Car into the top of tree and fell
through to the ground below, suffering no
| injury, however, barring few scratches.
The adventures landed in New Canaan,
Conn, and having secured the remnant of
the balloon returned home by rail- Thus
collapses this Graphic bubble, that has in
all respects proven the greatest fiasco of
the day. AS a fitting finale to the whole
thing, we append the following verses on
the subject, sent to us by some lunatic
who has evidently watched the progress
and elimination Of the affair with much
| care and interest
GRAPHIC TALE.
Mr. Wise he wouldn't go,
| And he thus broke up the show;
| When up stepped bold Donaldson accordin';
| Saying: "Give me plenty gas,
And promise you to pass,
Like streak. to the other side OF Jordan.
So they furnished Lunt and Ford,
And the hero stepped aboard,
When the thing arose as though twas etherial-
lied,
And says Donaldson: "My boys,
Toot your horn and make a noise;
Oh! the dream of my manhood now is realized,'
And from the upper regions,
BY the frightened carrier pigeons
Mr.. Ford he sent dispatches light as Eden;
| Saying: 1--WE have done our grant,
We have struck the eastern current,
And We'll write you the particulars from Swe-
den.''
| oh how the monster sweeps
Over rivers, and over streets
And the grandest view twas ever seen afordin';
Rising upward to the moon
This bustin' big balloon
Going straight to the other side of Jordan.
But the weather so seraphic
Wouldn't last and that ERE "Graphic"
Got blow from old Boreas, as he roard on;
Got wind and rain and bluster,
Till the big inflated buster
Kind O. paused in its passage over Jordan.
| Said Donaldson to Ford,
AS the monster pitched and roar'd:
II have left some earthly business unattended;
And / think I'll stop TO
If the Graphic Company
Are possessed of any gases not expended"
Said the other daring fellers:
"We forgot our umberellers,
And we cannot go to Europe while tits rainin';
Let us jump" And so they did
And their legs were almost hid
In the marshes of the "happy land OF Canaan"
am ready here and now
To put up my hand and swow
will not be fooled by any more
Such lingo.
Let the currents and the breeZes
Blow whichever way they pleases,
I'm for common modes of travelling,
By jingo
-Ckicogo Inter- Ocean, October 8.