Connecticut western news., 1873-09-19
Would go in a Balloon.

The following article first appeared
 in an English paper. It was given un-
 der the head of Ballooning Extraor-
 d1nary," and will prove of interest at
 the present time "A daring feat
 was lately accomplished by a citizen of
 Gettysburg. MT. John Wise, the
 American @ronaut, had announced his
 intention to make his thirty-ninth
 balloon ascension, and was ready on
 the day and hour promised. His bal
 loon was inflated, his ballast, grappling-
 iron, &c., duly slowed, and ne was
 about to step into the basket. At that
 moment MT. John Mcclellan, young gentleman of the town, inquired of MT.
 Wise whether it would not be possible for two persons to ascend with the power then in the balloon. On receiv- ing negative reply, Mir. Mcclellan seemed much disappointed, said he inquired the price at which MT. Wise would permit him to make the voyage alone. One hundred dollars, sir, said
 MT. Wise, who did not appear to con- sider the inquirer to be in earnest.
 I will give you fifty dollars! Agreed fork over! The joke was carried on, and the creans of it was soon trans ferred to the pocket of the @ronaut- and his substitute was snugly seated in the car, vociferating his direction to 'cut loose ! MT. Wise thought that matters had now gone far enough, and requested his customer to get out, as the time had arrived at which he had promised to be off But he refused to do so. and insisted that he had regular ly hired and paid for passage in this boat and go he would. MT. Wise then let the balloon up short distance by rope, thinking, probably, that as there was considerable wind, and the air-horse consequently turbulent, that his substitute would have his courage cooled and give in.' But this was no go-and thinking that he had as good a start as ever he would have, MT Mo- Clellan cut the rope-and aOas of!
 After he found that it was the deter
 1sisaatio1 of MT. Mcclellan to go, Mr. Wise had but time to give him few nasty and imperfect instructions in re- gard to the management ot the balloon and in a few minutes the daring ama- teur aronaut had ascended to height of about two miles. Here he struck current of air which bore him dieectly towards York. He said that the earth receGed from him very rapidly after he had thrown bag or two of sand upon lt-that Gettysburg passed off towards Hagerstown, and that he saw Carlisle, Hanover, Abbottstown, Oxford and Berlin, strolling about-and that soon after, just ahead of him, he saw old York coming full tilt up the turnpike towards him, apparently taking an after noon's walk to Gettysburg. Having de- termined to stop at York, and fearing, from the remarkable speed at which that staid and sober town was travelling, that she would soon pass under his balloon, and give him the slip, he pulled the string attached to the safety valve, in order to let off portion of his gas. The valve is so constructed that when the rope attached to it is pulled, the valve opens to the interior and again closes by the force of the gas when the rope is let go. Un fortunately, however, the inexperienced aeronaut pulled toe violently at the valve rope, tore the valve door completely off it's hinges, and brought it down into the car! When this occurred he was more thas mile high, and he immediately, and with fearful rapidity, descended, or rather JelI, to the earth! When the valve door came off, the gas, of course, escaped rapidly, but the balloon caught suffi- cient air to form a parachute, by which the fall was moderated, and we are hap py to say that the voyager reached the earth, about five miles from York, en- tirely uninjured! He says that as soon as the valve door came down upon him he knew that something had 'broke loose, and just then remembering that MT. Wise had told him to be sure when he descended to throw out his grappling iron, he was preparing to get at it, among the numerous things in the basket, when the earth bounced up against the bottom of the car! The es- cape of the gas was distinctly seen from York, and as the balloon neared ,he earth it had lost it's rotundity and ap- peared to the gazers to come down heavily like wet sheet"