The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1875-09-01
THE LAST BALLOON ASCENSION.

SuCGCoSiul UdlAuOH tSCcllSlOuS, SbuIGcl
out on his last trip, and had for hi!
sole companion a young reporter o
1.-THE Chicago Journal, named Grim
wood. This ascension was made il
the face of a coming storm and gale
and soon proved to the friends of tht
daring aeronaut and his brave com
panion, that all hopes were gone o.
ever seeing them alive again. Fol
many weeks the papers have been
filled with all sorts of sensational
stories and kilograms about them,
and only a few days since the dead
body of Grimwood, a mass of decom-
position and decay, was found in the
Michigan woods. This, Of course,
only. Mortified the whole romance,
and harassed the friends Of both men
to desperation. And now, a week la
ter, comes to light the finding Of
poor Donaldson in the same woods,
where he too had fallen, broken an
arm and a leg, and had been there
when found FIVE days, suffering the
fortunes of a hundred deaths and
starving by degrees. He died few
hours after being found, but lived
long enough to convey to his deliv-
erers full detail of his last balloon
trip. We have not space. for the mar
rative in full, but give a yart Of it in
his own words, which plainly reveals
his horrid fix, and the horrid fate
poor Grimwood was forced to meet
a few hours before Donaldson, too,
was doomed, and at the hands of
Donaldson:
q think the thought occurred to
Mr.. Grimwood at the same moment
as myself, only with this difference,
that to me it was only a new element
OF danger which I had confronted all
my lifetime---I faced it quietly. To
him it had an appalling strangencss
he sat covering in the basket, his
teeth chattering, his face liyid, his
hair blowing wildly in the storm.
He was completely unnamed, and i
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 ne had the experience, to manage
the balloon. At that moment, and
it seems to me the strangest thing of |
the journey, there flashed across my
mind q passage of Blackstone-I
studied law a little bit once in MT
life, you know--which refers to two
men on a plank at sea. It stood out
before me, i'll the pressurc. Of the mo-
ment, as distinctly as II the book
we're IN my hand, and I think cam
recite every word Of it yet.
Men think very rapidly at such
times, sir; and all this occurred more
quickly then can tell it to vou.
How the matter would have enncd in
ny mind cannot say, had mot seen
1t that moment Mr. Grimwood trying
% draw q Dcrringer from his pocket.
lis hand trembled so that | have no
dea, now, that he could have hit me:
'ut the movement was sufficient to
md my hesitation. All the instinct
u self-preservation leaped to my
and it seemed to me but a
simple wave of my hand before
5rimwood was falling toward the
axe, and the balloon shooting up
'bove. the, storm. The scream of
'gony which the poor wretch traiIed
Town to the water was horrible, hor-
IDLE. lean hear it yet; but I do not
egret what did. It was my life
gainst his; and my life was the bet
er Of the two
Zoo MUcH RISK. Come on now,
sed," cried a New York girl at Long
Branch the other day to STRIPPING
over at her side, "we've got clear Of ,
let's take a dive
Your father is an awful big and
tout man, amt hep observed the ,
outh.
"Oh, never mind that" exclaimed !
he miss petulently;; 'Iet's take a
wim-just see the great waves" Il
Don't you think it dangerous2" /
nxiously injured the lover, gazing
p and down the beach.
Dangerous? No! There isn't /,
ardiy any undcr,tow at this point; |
IS h
ooh, but it isn't the under-tow Tn I
fro;d oev .