The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1874-09-24
Coming Down in q Parachute.

Coming Down I'm q Parachute.
George Augusta Sala contributes the
following to the Belgrucia Magazine:
During tho early part of 1851 there
had been quite an epidemic of balloon
accidents. Two young aeronauts whom
l knew had been smashed within fort
night; and Albert Smith, whom / greatly
loved and esteemed, had been within an
ace of losing his life in falling from the
car of balloon on some scatfold-poles
Thus on my mental line of railway the
danger" signal was displayed very
plainly indeed; but l was young and
foolish, and endowed neither with su-
perstition nor with common sense. (The
first is very often IN excellent substitute
for the last.) So said l would go. My
brother, who was accustomed to my hav-
ing my own way, let me have it. Soycr
was unable to grant me a free pass for
the skyey realms, since the balloon was
worked as the inventors own specula.
ton, and ascending and descending
what with charges for gas and manual
labor, carting the dead body of the ma.
chine, when its gaseous soul has expired,
to the nearest railway station, and the
contingencies of damages to property
are somewhat expensive matters. Withal
the inventor, in consideration of my be-
ing connected with the press" with
which had at the time about as much
connection as call-boy on board a
penny steamer has with an iron-csad man.
Of wary, agreed to take me up at "cost
price," which he opined, barring acct
dents, would not exceed a couple of
pounds. A minute afterward had
shaken hands with half dozen friends
and had clambercd into the car. Then
there was cry of LET go" the crowd
chcercd-they would have been pleasure
bly, excited had we been going to be
hangcd-the band in an adjacent pavil-
ion struck up "See the conquering hero
comes" "a slightly inappropriate melody,
seeing that we were departing and not
arriving), and up we went.
So many ladies and gentlemen have
made "captive" and free" balloon as
cents within the last few years that it
would simply be an act of impertinence
on my par, to describe infinitely the phe
nomena of an ascent from the neighbOr-
hood 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 lowcrmost
banks of vapor and look down on the
tleccy, floating masses beneath you, you
experience a momentary feeling of pride
sheer assinine pride; or how, being
free from clouds, you look down and see
stretching around you the great green
earth, and Immediately below, London,
diminished to the size of a model in a
museum, st. Paurs seeming no bigger
than a pea and the monument looking
no longer than pin, while the smoke of
London seems stationary over it, thin,
sleczy, 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 skcin of quicksilver.
l must mention that my view of
the wondrous panorama around and be-
meath was somewhat impeded by the
fact that we were top-hampered by a
quantity of toy-balloOns, mere inflated
linen bags fashioned as lions, dragons,
fish and other preposterous forms, and
all emblazoncd with the cognizancc of
the Symposium. These wrctched little
tritlcs were indirectly the cause of our
undoing. The aeronaut had instructions to
cut the wind-bags adrift when he as
ccndcd short distance, in order that
they might amuse the gobemouc)tes Of
Brompton and Fulham road, and scatter
advertisements of the Symposium far
and wide. Thus the little old man, dur
ting the first five minutes of his ascent,
had been so busy with his pocket-knifc,
loosing these impe,limenta, that he had
forgotten a precaution very necessary to
our safety. While the balloon is on the
ground it is customary to close the neck
of the machine by means of handkcr-
chief tied in slip-kDot, in order to pre-
vent the admiXture of the heavy lower
stratum of atmospheric air with the more
buoyant carburctted hydrogen inside the
balloon. Directly the balloon ascends
the prudent aeronaut slips off the hand
kcrchief. Our aerOnaut, busted with his
trumpery windbags, did no such thing.
The assistant may have been unaware
that the thing ought to be done. He
cried out glcefully 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 sharp, cracking report,
precisely like that of musket shot,
above my head. The balloon had burst.
1t could scarcely, under the circum-
have done anything but burst.
The gas in the machine had become rare
fed, and had rapidly expanded. 1t
could not escape from above, the valve
was closed; it could not escape from be-
low, the neck was closed. So it went to
smash, just as an inflated and alright
bag of paper goes to smash between the
palms of a school-boy's hands.
So we fell, as stone falls, half mile.
When we assembled, it had appeared to
me that the earth was sinking beneath
us. Now the globe-ticlds, houses, lamp
posts, mney.pots-seemed to be rush.
ing up to us with literally uncomfortable
rapidly. There was in particular one
tail church-steeple which by the celebrity
of it's approach seemed to he horribly
anxious that should be impaled upon
its apex 1t could not have been Fulham
Church; but whatever and wherever was
the editice, it was there rushing up at
me; and declare that the grotesquencss
of the position of impalemcnt-all legs
and wings, like a cockchafer-distinctIy
and vis;bly occurred to me. declare
also, sans phrases, that there arose before
me no panorama" of my early life or
of my bygone acts and deeds, as such
panoramas are said to have arisen before
the eyes of persons rescued at the very
last instant from hanging or drowning.
Yet l do plainly and literally remember
several things: that l heard voice cry
with an oath, LET go!' and "Cut! cut!''
and that knife was thrust into my
hand; and it seemed afterward that the
assistant and had pitched out all the
ballast in the balloon-bags and all-and
that l had cut away the grapnel or anchor
from the side of the car. That had
done so was plain from two of my fingers
being jagged across by the knife. What
became of the grapnel we never knew;
but if it had fallen in a populous street
it would in all probability have killed
somebody. The heavy bags of ballast,
too, must have fallen like stones. The
final thing I remember during our de-
scent was droll enough. Just before the
balloon left the Pre- d'Orsay, my dear,
kind brother had thrown over my shout
ders a light DaletOt observing with a