The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1875-01-07

death seem ytWning for ms. To the pos
session of "Irerence of mind" ON the oc-
casion, ! disG.mlully refuse to lay any
claim. What | did in the matter Of the
ballast and grapnel ! did mechanically
and well nigh unconsciously, and ] was
desperately and mortally terrified. A few
DAYS after the accident ! met the aero
naut's assistant, and had the curiosity to
sound him us to my demeanor during
the fall,
Sir" he very candidly replied, "you
kept your mouth wide open, and You
were as blue as your breeches,'
/ had been clad at the time in light
summer attire.
"And you?,' continued,
"Well out Off quoth the aeronauts
assistant, who was seemingly phlloso-
pher. and so went his way.
MeNnwhile-the term is well nigh in
appropriate, since there was scarcely any
while" TO the "mean'-the aeronaut,
who looked like sailor, had not losl ms
presence of mind, and had not beenidle.
lie saw ut glance, this brave little old
man, although he had been iorgeiul OF
the matter of the siip.knotted handker'
chief, wherein our single chance OF sale
ty lay, He jumped up into the shiouds
OF the balloon, cut the cords winch At
tached the neck of the machine to the
hoop, aud away to the very top Of the
netting flew the whole of the exhausted
silk body of the sausage Then il fnned
u cupo.a of the approved umbrella pat,
tem--it formed parachute 1t stcadied
Instantly There was no collapse, and
down we came swiftly but easily in a
slanting direction, alighting among the
cabbages in market garden, Fulham
Fields. The car struck the elastic earth
with violence and rebounded, clearing Il
hedge, distance Of twenty feet. Then
the silk, and the netting, and the hoop,
and the car itself fell atop of us among
the Cabbages-
We were dragged forth from the ruins
of the sausage only to be hustled and
robbed of all the money in our pockets
by rufianly crew of working market
gardeners; and the proprietor of thellght
cart who consented to drive me from Full
ham to Kensington Gore, demanded a
guinea as his fare, on the ground that
balloons didn't fall every doy." He was
far from complimentary, too, about the
accident, remarking ironically that this
"wos cum Of carryin' up lot of dogs and
monkeys, This ingenius but mercenary
person had mistaken our wind-bag dra-
CONS and lions sailing through the air
when we assembled as living ANNALS.
| will omit any account of the congrat-
ulations which were lndulg ged in on our
return to Gore II use; yet | cannot con-
c!ude this paper without noting a preg-
nant, but somewhat strongly-wOrded re-
mark made by the little old aeronaut.
While everybody was grasping his hands
and paying him well-deserved compli-
ments on his intrepidity, he suddenly
drew toone side, folded his arms, and
stemly inquired:
Who the --- will say now that you
can't come down in parachute"
The manner of putting the query was
ine\ erent, but the matter thereof was
Cogent
Iureeand twenty years after the event
| have narrated, / find myself forcibly
imbled with the conviction that it is as
possible to descend in safety from any
height by means OF parachute, but
that there are ten thousand chances to
onealainstthe man who tries theyenture
10 tell the tale. And please
TO remember that | had no intenton Of
coming down ina parachute contract
ed 70 come down ina sausage balloon
but viii do the inventor the justice to
that he never asked me for my
share Of the expenses