The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-10-08
COMING DOwN IN A PARACHUTE.
George Augustus saIa's Experience as al

uenc6 on my part 70 describe ulnubely
the phenomena of an ascent from the
neighborhood of London: how you do
not at first appear to be rising, but
stationary, while the earth, on the other
hand, seems to be sinking beneath you;
how-if there are any clouds In your
part of the sky-when you have passed
through the lowermost banks of vapor,
and look down on the feecy, floating
masses beneath you, you experience a
momentary feeling of pride-sheer ash
nine pride; or how, being free from
clouds, you look down and see stretch
ing around you the great green earth,
| and immediately below, London, dim
inished to the size of a model in a mu-
| seun-St. Paul's seeming no bigger
than a pea, and the monument looking
no longer than pin, while the smoke
| of London seems stationary over it-a
| thin, sIeazy blue blanket in two strips,
one for the Middlesex' and one for the
! Surrey side, and cut precisely to the
shape of the city and suburbs, through
the whole running the glinting river,
! like a skein of quicksilver. / must
mention that my view OF the WOndrOus
| panorama around and beneath was some
what impeded by the fact that we were
top.hampered by a quantity of toy-bal-
! looms, mere inflated linen bags, fashion
| ed as lions, dragons, fish, and other
/ preposterous forms, and all emblazoned
| with the cognizance of the Symposium.
/ There wretched little trifes were in
| directly the cause of our undoing. The
/ aerqnaut had instructions to cut the
wind bIgs Rdrift when he assembled a
| short distance, in order that they might
amuse the gO5e n1OucheS of Brompton
and the Fulham road, and scatter ad-
vertisements of the Symposium far and
wide. Thus the little old man, during
the first five minutes of his ascent, had
been SO busy with his pocket-knife Ioos-
ing these ridiculous iRlpedinle7ltd, that
| he had forgotten a pl ecaution very ne
cessary to our safety. While the bal
loon is on the ground it is customary to
close the neck of the machine by means
of handkerchief tied in a slip-knot, in
order TO prevent the admixture of the
heavy lower stratum of atmospheric air
with the more buoyant carburetted by
drogen inside the balloon. Directly
the balloon ascends, the prudent aero
naut slips off the handkerchief. Our
aeronaut, busted with his trumpery
wind-bags, did no such thing. The
assistant may have been unaware that
the thing ought to be done. He cried
out gleefully that we had risen to the
altitude of one mile-that we were Just
over Fulham church, and that We were
about to cross the Thames. Just then
heard a sharp. cracking report, pre-
cisely like that of a musket-shot, above
my head. The balloon had burst. It
could scarcely, under the circumstances,
have done any thing but burst. The
gas in the machine had become rarefed,
and had rapidly expanded. It could
not escape from above, the valve was
closed it could not escape from below,
the neck was closed. So it went to
smash, just as an inflated air-tight bag
of paper goes to SMASH between the
palms of a school boys hands.
So we fell, as a stone falls, half a
mile. When we assembled, it had APP
peared to me that the earth was sinking
beneath Us. Now the globe-helds,
, houses, lamp posts, chimney pots
! seemed to be rushing up to us with
! literally inconeeivable rapidity. There
was in particular one tall church-steeple,
> which, by the CELEBRITY of its approach,
! appeared to be horribly anxious that
{ should be impaled on its apex. It could
a not have been the Fulham church but
e whatever and wherever was the edifice
. it was there rushing up at me and
declare that the grotesqueness of tbt
> position of impalement-all legs anl
q wings, like cockchafer-distinctly anC
h visibly occurred to me, declare, also
4 sans phrases, that there arose befor
h me no panorama" of my early life, o
"a of my by-gone acts and deeds, as sucl
! panoramas are said to have arisen befor
70 the eyes of persons rescued at the YER
"a last instant from hanging or drowning
"a Yet do plainly and literally remembe
- several things that heard a vote
- cry, with an oath, "Let gol' and "Cui
, cut I" and that knife was thrust int
q my hand I; and it seemed afterward this
20 the assistant and had pitched ont al
! the ballast in the balloon-bags and al
and that had cut away the grapne
u or anchor from the side of the car
he That had done so was plain from tw
% OF my fingers being jagged across by th
Or knife. What became of the grapnel "
n. never knew but, if it had fallen in
rs populous street, is would in all probl
re bility have killed somebody. The heav
,e bags of ballast, too, must have falle
D. like stones. The final thing remembe
lg during our descent was droll enough
ar Just before the balloon left the Pr
m d'Orsay, nv dear, kind brother ha
ID thrown over my shoulders light pale
he tot, observing, with a laugh, that
a. might feel it rather cold sup there.
is I dOnned this garment as we ascendeC
ct and remember saying as We cam
es laundering down, Charley's coat wi
le be torn to ribbons" So much for pane
lg ramic effects when the jaws of deaf
A seemed to be yawning for us. To til
IN possession of what is ordinarily terme
MT "presence of mind" on the occasion,
g, disdainfully decline to lay claim. VIII,
he l did in the matter of the grapnel an
q the ballast was done mechanically an
ne wellnigh uncOnsciously and was de
al perately and mortally terrified. A fe
be days after the accident met the aer,
IT. naut's assistant, and had the curiosii
ed to sound him as to my demeanor durin
tn the fall.
M "Sir, he very candidly replied, eye
of kept your mouth wide open, and yc
d, were as blue as your brooches"
N, 1 had been clad at the time in ligl
ok summer attire. And you ?" I CO.
ad tinued.
lie, "Well out of it." auoth the aer
lis naut's assistant, who was seemingly
in philosopher and SO went his way.
pc Meanwhiie-the term is wellnigh i
he appropriate, since there was scarce
a any "while" to be mean''-the aer
", naut, who looked like sailor, had n
N, lost his presence of mind, and had n
lst been idle. BE saw at a glance, th
up brave little old man-although he hI
mt been forgetful in the matter of the sli
Qe knOtlCu uAuQkGrC0ltI-Nuo our 81
rn. gle chance of safety lay. He Jump,
res mp into the shrouds of the balloon, c
of the cords which attached the neck
Did the machine to the hoop, and away
ew the very top of the netting flew Z
it'll whole of the exhausted silk body of Z
BILE sausage. Then 1t formed q cupola
of the approved umbrella patteTn-it forl
M ed a parachute It steadied Instant
eT, There was no collapse, and down '
in came swiftly, but easily, in a slantil
it'll direction, alghting among the cabbas
are in market garden, FulhRm fields. Il
ew car struck the elastic earth with VI
va lence, and rebounded, clearing hedg
md a distance of some twenty feet. Tn
,is- the silk, and the netting, and the hoo
ea- and the car itself fell atop of us amol
m the cabbages. We were dragged for
J from the ruins Of the sausage, only