The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-06-05
Letter from one of the Excursion
lists.

We left Wellington ut 10 O'Clock a. m.
on Friday, the 30lh day of May, as was
advertised. As our balloon was in good
running order, we took 500 copies of
the history of Lorain county for ballast
and graf uitous distribution, they being
the heaviest thing according to bulk Of
any mineral we know Of; as 1t is re-
ported that three ounces of this book
would weigh about four pounds. We
then loaded in our passengers, consist
ing Of Timothy Herrick, grand COM
mander; Morrow, second in command; ;
Sawtell, scene photographer; Bunce,
supply agent; Wilcox, bugler; Han
son, baggage man; Arnold, as inter-
peter; he having Travelled extensively
in California and associated directly
with the Chinese people, therefore he
was of untold advantage to US after we
landed. Well, after we had our forty
passengers, we cut the ropes of the bal-
loon and sailed majesticaly through the
air to the height of abodt two miles, at
w WhiCh pOiut LICIItCh ChilCu - huAt, oS
Morrow was getting scared and did not
want to 90 any higher until. after he
had passed in his final checks. Wilcox
sounded the call and the photographer
commenced taking pictures of the sky,
it being about all we could see distinct
ly, as we were afraid to look down for
it kind of made us homesick. We all at
the time kept perfectly quiet, each try
ing to think of the last words he had
spoken on earth, and trying to see II
they would sound patriotic like John
A. Dix's flag story, but was interrupt
ed by the Interpreter telling US a story
in the Chinese language, which was
very funny to himself, but failed to
bring smile from the thirtY-nine
thinking companions, whose thoughts
were at that time On things below. We
then by order, tied the balloon fast; +;
then the thing became interesting.
The earth was moving east at such q
rapid rate that the the photo man (who
looked DOWN said he believed his satan
ic majesty was loose on earth, and that
large cities were passing every minute
under the balloon. Our interpreter be-
came anxious and asked the photogra-
pher to call out when Oakland passed
under, as he wanted to give Cyrus vii.
liams a history of Lorain. Morrow
thought if the photo man could set his
instrument in proper shape, he might
consolidate lot Of small towns In one
picture and make q city; but Fisher
thought we had better have season Of
song and attend to these small matters
on our return trip. Jay thought it best
to tighten the load and heaved out sixty
copies Of history for Sitting Bull. Og.
den remarked that he thought that q
waste of raw material, but Jay said
they could look ct the pictures and be-
come enlightened. We all agreed that
it would be big joke on the Indians
In this way land and water passed un-
der us for eleven hours, when the partj
became anxious to land; as the photo
man said he could see towns passing
under again, we commenced our descent
Nearly every one was anxious, as we
all became trifie sea-sick as the ocean
passed under us. Our descent was sc
rapid that we thought best to Tighten
by throwing out a few more copies OF
history for the heather Chinee, and in
that way we worked down, it taking
US nearly an hour, but finally landed
in the very pleasant city of Pekin, and
was met by the emperor and about
three hundred missionaries. a
Concluded next week.