The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1875-07-22
THE MISSING AERONAUTS.
esotIling Heard from Donaldson Grim
wood-Beief That They Perished in Lake
NicT,ioren

esothing Heard from Donaldson or Grim
wood-Belief That They Perished in Lake
Michigan.
[From the Chicago Journal, 19th.]
The last lingering hope to which the
friends OF Donaldson and Grimwood
have chung SO earnestly, despite the stern
facts which almost forbade hope, has
died away, and the two must now be
given up for lost. For four days we
have been listening intently to every
click Of the telegraph, anxiously inquir-
ing OF every incoming vessel, assid-
uously hunting down every rumor, no
matter how idle, and tenaciously cherish
ing every theory of safety and deliver
ance to them, only to be confronted at
last with the sorrowful reality which
must now, we fear, be acknowledged as
such, that they met their death In the
terrific hurricane of Thursday night,
and are buried beneath the waters OF
the lake. Exactly how they met their
doom it is impossible that we should
ever know. Undoubtedly in the storm,
which frail airship like the one which
carried them could by no possibility
withstand. But how long and desper-
ately they struggled for life, how they
cheered each other SO long as they re-
manned together in the basket IN
which they were borne on their
Journey, how they recalled their
friends on the land, and regretted
the venturesome spirit that induced
them to take their lives in their
hands and go out on such
perilous journey, are all matters
of the merest conjecture. The balloon,
caught In the gale, driven hither and
thither like desperate creature gone
mad, could not have made long resist
ance. When that became useless to
them, either by being torn in pieces or
being cut loose by themselves, it left the
two men engaged in fearfully unequal
struggle for life; hard and valiant
struggle no doubt it was against wind
and wave. They could hear only the
thunderiLgs of the storm and the
screaming and Kissing of the waters !;
they saw only the vivid flashes OF the
lightning and the foaming heads of the
waves. The wildness of such scene
can only be imagined. The struggle
were too great.
There is good cause to believe that for
some reason or other, Donaldson intend
ed, before starting on this last fatal trip,
to attempt a voyage across the lake.
Whether it was because he had been up
braided for not making a more sensa-
tional trip on the previous day, as is cir
cumstantially asserted, is unknown. But
if he only contemplated an ascent SINH
lar to that of Wednesday, why was it
that he insisted that only one OF the
newspaper men should accompany him
Two were intending to go; they were
actually in the car, but at the last mo-
ment one was compelled to get out and
remain behind. They had 900 pounds
of sand, $50 pounds of which might
have been left and another passen-
ger taken, had the aeronant not
been intent on making an unusual
performance. But of that intent his COM
panion, Grimwood, and his friends had
no knowledge. He and they only knew
that the day before four newspaper men
went up, remained an hour or two
and descended in safety. There was
apparently no reason why this should
not be repeated with the same results.
And 1t was with this expectation, and
in no spirit of recklessness, and with no
thought that any unusual feat was to be
attempted, that Grimwood was induced
to go on this journey of disaster and
death. However unjust this was to Grim
wood, poor Donaldson, so far as he was
responsible, is as far beyond the reach
of censure, as the victim is beyond re-
calling the resolution made In ignorance
4 i L L =;
to him.