The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-10-02
COMING DOWN IN A PARACHUTE

AerOnaUt.
So many Indies and gentlemen have
made " "captive" and free" balloon
ascents within the last few years, that
it would simply be an act of imperti-
nence on my part to describe minutely
the phenomena of an asceDt 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 heecy, 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-
seum-St. Paul's seeming no bigger
than pea, and the monument looking
no longer than a pin, while the smoke
of London seems stationary over it-a
thin, sleazy 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 gIinting river,
like q skein of quicksilver. I must
mention that my view o: the wOndrOus
panorama around and beneath was some
what impeded by the fact that we were
top-hampered by quantity of toy-bal-
looms, mere inflated linen bags, fashion
ed as lions, dragons, fish, and other
preposterous forms, and all emblazored
with the cognizance of the Symposium.
There Wretched little tTifes were in
directly the cause of our undOing. The
aersnaut had instructions TO cut the
wind-bags adrift when he assembled a
short distance, In order that they might
amuse the gO5e n1Oucj1eS 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 in7pediDleylta, that
he had forgotten a p: 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 hy-
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-sh 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 smasl between the
palms Of a school-boy's hands.
| So we fell, as stone falls, half a
mile. When we assembled, it had sp-
! peared to me that the earth was sinking
beneath us. Now the globe-felds,
houses, lamp posts, chimney pots
! seemed to be rushing up to us with
literally inconceivable rapidity. There
was In particular one tall church-steeple,
which, by the celerity of its approach,
| appeared to be horribly anxious that ]
should be impaled on its apex. It could
| not have been the Fulham church but,
whatever aud wherever was the edifce,
it was there rushing up at me and /
declare that the grotesqueness of the
position of impalement-all legs and
wings, like ckchafer-distinctly and
visibly occurred TO me, I declare, also,
sans phrases, that there arose before
me no panorama" of my early life, OF
of my by-gone 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 do plainly and literally remember
several things that I heard a voice
cry, with an oath, "Let goi' and "Cut
cut - and that knife was thrust intC
my hand and it seemed afterward thai
the assistant and 1 had pitched out al
the ballast in the balloon-bags and al
and that I had cut away the grapne
or anchor from the side of the car
That 1 had done so was plain from two
of my fingers being Jagged across by th'
, knife. What became OF the grapnel Va
never knew; but, if It had fallen in
} pOpulous street, it would IN all prOba
! bility have killed somebody. The heav.