Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-09-18
A PUTRID "REMINISCENCES,

ST. PAUL, Mimi, Sept 15.-King's
great balloon lies prone and PROSTATE on
the ground tonight, and the much. talked
OF expedition to the sea is at an end The
gale which was spoken of last evening
continued through the night and all this
day, increasing in violence from hour to
hour. The balloon labored terribly to
escape, and the strain and struggle of
yesterday was kept up without cessation.
The neck of the monster got united
about midnight and the gas escaped rapid
ly. Nothing could be done to stay the
leak. One might as well try to stop
train OF cars by clinging to the platform
OF the last coach as to restrain that fran
tic neck. 1t lashed the netting like
thing OF life, with force enough to knock
an elephant crazy. Several at
tempts were made to cap
ture the internal thing and hold it long
enough to get a cord around it, but it
could not be done, and the aeronauts
abandoned the job after getting thrashed
numerically. 1t was no boys play
clambering about in the netting with the
enormous gas-bag pounding and strain
ing at the ropes below, and dashing from
side to side. Nobody cared to stay up in
the rigging as long as there was no GER
talnty that the colossal body would not
tear loose any minute, and, if such a
calamity should have occurred, it meant
SURE DEATH
to any person unfortunate enough to be
attached to the machine at the moment.
No power could save him from destruc-
ton. The bottom and sides of the balloon
presented an immense surface for the
wind to play against, more than the
spread of canvass On the largest ship,
and the strain was simply terrific.
The stones and sand in the
basket must have weighed six
or seven thousand pounds, and added
to this was the restraining influence ex-
erted by three anchors held down by
rocks that three men could not lift, and
by four or five stout rope cables attached
to trees. Yet every once in while the
balloon would raise the carsclear off the
ground, and tug at the ropes with the
strength and determination of locomo-
tive that has been cut loose, 1t must be
hard for one who has not seen it to real
iZe the enormous power that can be eX-
erted by hundred thousand feet of i'm
prisoned hydrogen on the rampage, but
it is no eXaggeration to say that this bal
loon could have switched ten tons across
the country at race horse speed, with a
gale blowing at the velocity of fifty miles
an hour. We watched the gas-bag with
anxious eyes, expecting every minute to
see it go. 1t failed the wind the night
through, an d when King
CRAwLED OUT OF HIS DOwNY COUCH
this morning he shook his head mourn
fully. Half the gas or more had escaped
and it was leaking every second. He was
advised to pull the valve rope or collap-
sing cord, but refused to do so while there
was ghost of show remaining, and the
balloon and wind were left 10 fight it out
until nearly 3 O'Clock in the afternoon,
when it became evident that the case was
hopeless. Two-thirds of the hydrogen
was gone, and the wind was forming the
envelope into parachute, and blowing
into it with an energy that threatened to
tear the whole pasture up by the roots and
fling it into the face of heaven. II must
do something or the balloon will be
gone" said King, and he went for the
valve rope. He discovered that it had be-
come entangled in the rigging, and fully
half an hour elapsed ere he could get it
into working order. Then came a
mighty struggle. The chained monster
resisted the united strength of twenty
men for an hour or longer. They
swarmed up the rigging every time the
wind bore the balloon to the ground, and
tried with all their power to hold 1t
down, but in vain. 1t rose without an
effort and threw the
CLJNGING ATOMS OF HUMANITY
about like nine-pins. Those who hung
on were carried high into the air, or
switched over the ground and into the
bushes like dish-rags. The air was full
of flying legs, and the earth was mopped
by the forms of reporters, Fort Smelling
soldiers, and others. The, fight was in
tensely exciting, and for long time the
result was in doubt. The rip-cord at
length tore great cash in the side, and
with every throb the enraged leviathan
grew weaker, until at last it lay upon the
ground quivering mass. The air was
| oppressive with the smell of n.y.
drogen, but the brave fellows
who had assisted in reducing the
inanimate thing to subsection did not let
go until it was fiat enough to sit on. An
ordinary balloon would have been torn
into shreds by the usage to which this one
was subjected, but with the exception of
the rent made by the rip cord there was
not hole as big as a pln-head to be
found in the cloth The basket was
knocked out of shape, however, aud both
of the eoncentric rings to which it was
suspended were broken. By6o'clock all
of the party except King, Holden and
Upton were
ON THEIR WAY TO ST. PAUL,
five miles distant, where they arrived an
hour and half later, cold. wet, exhaust
ed and disguised. They were mad at
everything, but they could not find it in
their hearts to blame Prof King for the
failure of the expedition The elements
were against them from the start. When
the air boat cast anchor the first night it
was in dead calm. Then when the wind
arose it was from the wrong direction,
and remained so for thirty hours or more,
and when it changed it developed into a
gale before it was thought safe to make
an attempt to ascend into the clouds.
Had the balloon been as full Of gas the
third day the professor would have made
the attempt, but in its weakened state he
was afraid the passengers would be
pounded to death before they could get