The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1875-07-22

DETROIT July ia special to the Free Press
from Kalamazoo says that the employees the Kali
amszoo & South Haven Railroad trains this after
noon, bring in the report that Prof. Donaldson
alighted between South Haven and Saugatuck Sun.
day in exhausted condition, and medical aid has
been sent him from South Haven.
TORONTO, Ont, July q, Intelligence from Auro-
"a. Ont,is that on Monday at O'Clock in the even
ing, large balloon was seen passing within mile
of the village, going in northeasterly direction
The basket in the balloon was apparently empty
and the balloon lying over on one side.
CHICAGO, July 21.-The balloon yovagers have re-
turned from their aerial trip.
The Chicago Journal, issued, at o.
clock Wednesday evening, the 2lst, said:
No definite news of the missing balloon,
except that we have report from Toron-
to that large balloon was seen passing
over Canada, going in a northerly direction,
on Monday evening. A balloon was also
seen high up in the air on Sunday, and on
yesterday a balloon was seen passing over
this city, We hardly know what to make
of these reports, but that from Canada
gives US little hope that Donaldson and
his companion, passing over Michigan, may
yet be heard from.
And in another article the same paper
said:
A balloon, high up in the air, was seen
passing over this city by credible witnesses
yesterday forenoon, coming from the north
east across the lake, and passing away in
a southwesterly direction. A similar bal
loon is reported to have been seen. also
high up in the air, at Goshen, in Northern
Indiana, passing easterly, on Saturday
morning. A report from Fort Wayne,
Ind, states that on Sunday at noon bal
loon was seen sailing northeasterly, at that
place, at great height; and another report
states that at midnight on Sunday night
persons at Richmond, Ind, saw a bal
loon, by the bright moonlight, sailing south
westerly. Now, inasmuch as we have no
information of balloon ascension recently
in any part of the west, except those made
from this city last week, the question that
naturally suggests itself is whether this
mysterious balloon, seen by different per-
sons in different localities during the past
three days, is not Donaldson's air-ship,
which assembled from Chicago on Thursday
EVENING" Can it be that the balloon is still
floating about in the high upper atmos-
phere THAT the aeronauts, seeing the ap-
proach of the storm which threatened to
overtake them, threw out all their ballast
in order to tighten their vessel sufficiently
to rise above and escape it?-that, ascend
ing to an altitude where the atmosphere
was so extremely rare that breathing be-
came impossible, the balloonists sank life
less into the bottom of their basket, and
have ever since been waited about in vari-
Gus directions, by changing currents, the
balloon having no one to guide or control
it? The theory is plausible as fal
as the throwing out of ballast and
the rising into the upper
strata of atmosphere is concerned; and
equally plausible is the supposition thai
the balloon passengers, reaching height
where breathing became impossible, sank
into the bottom of their basket insensible
but the doubtful part of the matter is the
possibility of the gas-illed globe, to which
their basket was attached, maintaining it
self in the air so long. The science o
aerology, as at present understood, would
decide against this possibility; but tn,
theories and hypothesis of this department
of science are by no means infallible
There is chance that the missing balloon
is still drifting about in the high upper at
mosphere, its passengers iifeless, and tn
vessel at the mercy of the currents, If sc
, it will of course ultimately descend to tn
earth and be heard from.
The Inter Ocean of the same morning
said:
( 1t is all very we'll to theorize, to hop
against hope, to try and look at the brigh
: side, but what shall we say to the hear
less fools who deliberately perpetrat
= hoaxes in case involving the fate of tW
+ human beings, every rumor about whol
must necessarily harrow up the feelings
their people at home, deluding them wit
/ false hopes, and then plunging them in
% the depths of despair. The despatch fro
- South Haven, announcing that ponalds6
- had arrived there in an exhausted cond
y ton, has been proved beyond all questiC
- TO be hoax. But it must have been
deliberate hoax, One would like to exar
&c inc the heart of the man who perpetratt
30 that message to see what it is made {
&c Perhaps he would hesitate before sendil
= another such could he have witnessed Il
N" effect of it upon Mr.. Grimwood's relativ
s. one ofwhom is lying SO i'll that friends a
pit afraid to break the news to her.