The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1875-09-02
DONAIDSON'S DEATH AND
CONFESSION.
Full Particulars Of the Whole
Affair.

SuN tlSSuvN.
Full Particulars Of the whole
Affair.
From the Cincinnati Times
The narrative furnished by the
Pembroke (Ontario) Ne,cs, of the
death Of Donaldson, the aeronaut.
and of the confession that he made
previous TO breathing his last, is full
of mournful and tragic interest, es-
pecially at this time, when the re-
mains of the unhappy Grimwood are
being buried at his home in lnniana.
1t relates that Just two week subse-
quent to the starting of the ill-fated
balloon, that is, on the lst inst, Mr..
Wilson, one OF the editors of the
Ne,cs, together with party of
friends, set out for a fishing excur-
sion, intending to be gone until the
lst of September. Their plan was to
push right up the Ottawa river to its
junction with the Montreal, and
thence up the latter stream in their
bdih tditoIS w 1ts SouIIC III ILdhC bcS
Quinzes, where they intended to
make their headquarters. 1t was
when within about fifty miles of the
lake, amid the dense and untrodden
forest through which the Montreal
river runs, that the doomed aeronaut
was found, partly protected by the
ruins of a fishing hut, with his left
arm and leg broken, and starvation
slowly making it's way against the
few roots and berries that he had
been able to drag himself out TO
gather. Gangrene had also set in,
in consequence Of his unattended
wounds, and even the most unpro-
fessional eve could see that death
was inevitable, and that a few more
hours must terminate - suilerings.
And yet it must have been grand
thing, judging from Mr.. Wilson's
narrative, to note how the magnif-
cent physique and dare devil spirit
of the man rose triumphant; over pain
and death. Shattered. starved. dy-
ing, as he was, his bearing was AS
proud and self-reliant as in the hours
Of his perfect prime, and his voice,
through all the story OF his suffer
ings, was firm and unbroken to the
last. The narrative which Mr.. Will
son noted down from the lips of the
dying man is too long for our space.
but the first portion is so fun of
thrilling interest that we give il in
his own words:
"The fact that the wind, upon our
first rising. carried US directly upon
the lake did not disturb me par,i-
Gle. for that had been my plan from
the first The breeze was a stiff one.
and IFS tend such as to carry us di-
rectly across into Michigan loug be-
fore the natural loss Of gas could have
exceeded the amount OF ballast hat
| could throw out. Once in Michi-
gan, intended to seek landing in
the woods, to lie quiet until our alb
sence had given us sufficient adver-
tislng. and then report at the nearest
town. The storm upset all our cal
culatious. 1t struck us about mid
way in the lake, and at an elevation
Of about two thousand feet. 1t need
ed but lew moments TO show me
that disaster was inevitable. You
see a storm is not necessarily dam
gerous TO a balloon, provided it be
slow in its rise and steady in it's pro-
gress. The balloon moves rs rapidly
as the air, and thus escapes injury.
But this storm was succession Of
furious gusts, collapsing the balloon
on one side before it could yield on
the other, and driving the gas out of
the neck in such volumes as almost
to stihe US. OF course, to fasteu up
the neck would have resulted in i'm.
mediate bursting. We had to let the
gas 60, though our lives were going
with it, The rain, too, added greatly
TO the weight of the balloon, and in
less than ten minutes all our ballast
was out and we were still settling.
An immediate discharge of all the
ballast at the time the storm first
struck us, might possibly have shot
the balloon up clear of the storm
level, but feared, at the first mo-
ment, to risk a counter current that
should carry us up the lake, and in
the next we were 50 stupetied with
the escaping gas as to be able to
work only with great difficulty and
sowness. 1t was only when the bal
last was gone, and our descent still
rapid, that the thought forced its way
into my mind that one of us must die
to save the other.
think the thought occurred to
Mr.. Grimwood at the same moment
as to myself, only with this differ
ence, that to me it was only new
element Of danger which | had con-
tronted all my lifetime-I faced it
quietly. To him it had an appalling
strangeness-he sat covering in the
basket, his teeth chat,ering his face
livld, his hair blowing wildly in the
storm. He was completely unnamed,
and | pitied him deeply, butt was
life or death. For the moment the
thought occurred to me of giving him
chance for his life by drawing lots;
but in the next saw clearly that it
would be to him only another mode
Of death, for he had not the nerve,
even if had the experience, to manage
the balloon. At that moment, and it
seems to me the strangest thing of
the journey, there flashed acress my
mind a passage Of Blackstone--l
studied law a little bit once in my