Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-08-15
RALLOONING IN A STORM.
Riding I'm = Thunder shower $500
Feet I'm the Air.


From the Hartford Comm Times. August7.
On the 29th July Capt A. Z. moore ana Froi.
s. NJ. Brooks made a balloon ascension nom
Winsted. and four hours later returned home by
the Hartford and Connecticut Western railroad.
Capt. Moore gives this account OF the trip:
"You will remember that we started at 12:o4
O'Clock, when we were advertised 70 starS ~
precisely /. The reason Of our early start Was
to avoid a heavy shower of rain which we saw
coming, but we were disappointed, for u struck
but not with sufficient force to cause any trounle
more than to bring US down about SOO ieet. we
were at height OF 500 feet before encounss1
pounds OF ballast and Immediately rose 70 our
former altitude, where we were caught oy q
direction, giving us q beautiful view Of q piano.
rama which is never seen except from o balloon.
anere were dozen towns spread out 1enea s;
Others were SO far away that the houses looked
IKE white spots on the broad green neids. WIN
ford sIS 0s P %ess Inn
IN Sie sunlight like silver shields. The cackiing
and Growing of hens and ROSTERS, the shouting OF
tuck railroad train could be heard when al
Otner sounds had ceased to reach us. Inc slgat
was wonderfully grand but we dd not ENJOY XII ~
very long, for on looking up we discovered tnat
we were being borne toward what aeronauts
eau cumulus cloud-or, to make II palmer,
heavy, and about 400 feet through from the
top to the bottom. This cloud was continually
moving In and out, seething and boiling ike
the ocean In q storm, while cold breezes swept
along Its face which chilled US and caused the
thermometer to drop twenty degrees In q lew
seconds sWon is nrge blocks Of cloud would oreas
over us, sometimes under US, and then enveIOp-
ing us in such darkness and rain that the bal
ioon was scarcely visible from the basket. Al
ter being buffeted about on the borders Of this
cloud for q few minutes we were carried away
INTO the sunshine again, with clouds beneath
81. no p.lr Ia m IN
. Here another trouble beset us; for though
the sunlight was comfort, yet its heat, to-
lieved the pressure from the outside, caused the
gas to expand To such an extent that it passed
out at the neck OF the balloon ut the rate OF u
thousand feet u minute.
1.-THE stiffness here was oppressive. could
plainly hear the ticking OF q watch in my
pocket and our straw hats made such a crack
ling sound that thought they were going to
pieces. Brooks opened the valve at the top OF
the balloon and we dropped down few hun
enemy, the heavy black cloud. We did not
like the looks oil things here, and were debating
Sn Il would not be better to continue
caught in II whirlwind and carried right into
the darkness and storm: Then began what
seemed hours of terror. The rain was pouring
In on us i'll torrents. It came at US from all
sides-irom above and below-being forced up
ina :,,, the bottom Gf the basket by
lightning severed the clouds on all sides O.
us, eacn flash followed immediately by sharp
sntppIny tnunUef. 10e balloon trenDied
and sometimes stood still for Il second or two,
then swung away, to be again bruu, ut to u halt
by cross-current; the netting would ..cca sion-
ally shit from its position with Il grating sound
while we held on as best we could until the wind
hogan to whistle through the Cords when we
immediately dropped 10 the bottom Of the bas-
ket: knowing that our course must soon change
ana the basket go swinging around like school
boys playing snap the whip
1--we were travelling at what seemed better
than mile minute, in total darkness some
times in one direction and sometimes in an
other, when we began throwing out ballast in
hopes OF rising above the storm. but after hav-
ing thrown out 165 pounds, and having but
ten pounds left with which to man;ise our
landing, and Icing still in the storm, we con.
GUIDED 10 return to mother earth. We We're
sui $500 feet from the ground, Us shown by
the bafOmeter-ha"in gone Z. 200 feet through
that one cloud. The thermometer marked 45
degrees .gsrsro,v,na ont ,,,,,s, ,,.s ..o,,,o, $500
started downward. When we left the cloud the
THERMOMETERS and watch showed US that We
We're going down at the rate of 100 feet every 4
seconds. moment later We heard the .1ices
Of men, aud looking down discovered that we
were nearing some farmhOuscs and that the
people were ont watching us. Mauy of their
remarks could be plainly heard; and #.,en with
graphing iron, which dragged safely Though a
herd OF cattle in the pasture without catching
on to anything that could stop US. Brooks
called out TO me to pull the rip-cOrd, which /
did, opening hole 40 feet long in tue side OF
the balloon and letting III Il gust OF wind which
thing OH Barn-Door Hill in CRANKY, without in.
juring either of US. We were up 81 minutes
and landed 1e miles from the starting point
The Strong Point In Poker.
HARVARD GRADUATE WHO IS ASTONISHING
THE WEsT-BIG BETS LAID ON POOR HANDS.
Kansas City Letter in the Cincinnati Times
year ago met a young man who had come
out west to grow up with the country He was
a graduate of Harvard and had pleasant man.
ners, but had evidently left a comfortable
eastern home with exaggerated notions of the
west In three weeks after his arrival he was
strapped and had all his best buds pawned
time, but did not see him again until a few
days ago. He had the ear-marks of prosperity
about i'm and l was told later that he hat grad
u;tted from q coal dealer clerk as Il crack BOXER
player and he had learned 1t all within /: few
months. Some wonderful stories were told OF
this young fellow s nerve, and 1t was said that
he had good fat bank account AM sat resI
larry In stockman's game. The tide in his
fortune was turned by his grit IL playing two
into gambling for some time and knew Il
great deal about a deck OF cards Three of
after the draw leaving only two contestants
The hero OF this story had been winning aud
bet freely on his hand: His opponent kept see
ing him and raising him, and finally, after the
pot had grown big enough to be worth fighting
ZOE raised him $500. The clerk in the coal
office pn, on his thinking cap He had two
taien cOoily eyed his antagonist. This lasted
two or three mirutes and not facial muscle
II call you," he said at last, throwing his
deuces down on the table. They won the not
The other mans hand was not as good as ace
high. am told that this young Harvard grad
uate is one of the best poker players hereabEuts
He calls a bluff instinctiveiy His luck is
charmed, and the oldest and most IuckIess
players tremble when they 60 against him The
great art in poker is to know when to call and
when not to call. With S1OO in the not and
SO bet by his antagonist l once saw the
best gambler in Missouri lay down three
Of kind. "Why did you not call him: it
would only have cost You $5:" said L
ale had . better hand than did, and
would have been just SO out Men are born
right time that makes them successful. In u
big game ut hotel here, not long ago. In
which tive or six friends took part there
was an exciting Illustration Of this delirious
sort OF doubt Every player mad made good
his ante, and some of them had put in q few
hundred dollars additional before dropping
out. At length $4,000 lay on the table
with two players fighting for 1t. 1 stood
behind one of them. He had three queens hay-
ing drawn to them at the start. His opponent
had drawn three cards. The latter at this juno
man with three queens was fairly staggered.
His antagonist might be blutting. He might
have drawn to an ace and king and caught
nothing, or he might have caught another king
and two more aces, or he might have drawn To
a pair and caught full hand. Was he bluffing?
That was the question. After thinking the
matter over he did not consider his queens
worth that amount of money, SO both hands
went to the deck and the man on the other side
OF the table raKed in the stakes. / found out
afterward that all this money was won or the
h.nrpf Ri,