Signal-Copiahan. (Hazlehurst, Copiah County, Miss.) 1885-1888, 1886-02-04
FAST TO A LOCOMOTIVE,
The Adventure OF an Aeronaut
and q Reporter.

ana Il NepOrter.
wish YOU would relate to me your
mos rilling adventure, profcssor-l
Wan B, To tell the boys"
Prof. King,,adl is one Of the most
s.nial aud kindly Of men; and | did
uot in the least hesitate to ask him for
story. Iii, life has been filled with
adventurous incidents; for he is an
Rcronari 10y profession, and an cnthusi-
nstic believer in the future of aerial
navigation.
The world i much inclined TO laugh
n, enthusiasts, and call them visionary;
but the world owes a great deal to
customary people. Such men are the
pioneers of all great inventions, and
they commonly receive small remuner-
alton for their lifelong labors.
Here t. the professor, for example;
he is often without the means TO buy a
good dinner, aud j. obliged to eat u
poor one. lie might make money in
many other NocationS; but he sticks
fast to balloons. and risks his life in
making ascent, with the unsclliShness
of % man who love, li, chosen art, and
ha, full faith in it.
lie hopes To construct an air-ship
which can be- propelled in any required
direction; and hc will spend his life at
WORK un ,ha, problem and very likely
fail to solve it; yct--aS hc says-somc
one else may ,akc il up where he was
obliged to leave it, aud carry it on to
full achievement.
Tyrniy.>cycn years of not altogether
successful experimenting have not yc,
robbed his kindling gray eye of one
viii, of it, interested brightness. Hope
still glows there. wish he might sue.
cccd. What a Grand flash of triumph
would light hi, face, and stir his heart
II would be sight TO do one good tC
witness il.
"Willmgly," said the professor.
"Anything tn amuSc the boys. ! like
boys; for they are always honest crit.
ic>. and say what they think. Let me
see; my most thrilling adventure
Well. | should say that my most thrill
ing adventure was very brief one, yet
exciting while it lasted, both exciting
and dangerous, too.
81 had asccndcd hat day." he con.
linucd, from one Of the suburbs OF
Chicago. I, was not public occasion,
exactly, but an experimental ascent, to
test a theory which q Chicago gentle
man then bod, - to the setting Of the
aerial cut l., from the western land
board acro,, Lake Michigan. His idea
of Il uniform current, at q certain
height, during spring and fall, was
capable. II proven, Of possible utiliza.
ton for purposes of travel between
Chicago and Detroit, or Toledo, or even
to Cleveland. a reporter for the 7rib.
uRc went up with me; nice. quiet
young man Of twenty or twenty-five,
named Burlington Stevens.
"My balloon was taken to the
grounds adjoining the private residence
Of the gentleman in whose behalf
made the ascent and filled with city gas
by means Of hose connected with one
Of the street mains. We got off at two
o'clock in the afternoon, and the
weather being quite calm, the balloon
rose steadily, almost pcrpendicularly,
for a distance of four to five thousand
fcet.
AT about that height we encoun.
tered a pronounced northwest current
which ut once carried us of to the
southcast-down over the Indiana corn.
fields. Instead of heading for Detroit
or Cleveland, we were en- route for In.
dianapolis, or Cincinnati, as had fully
expected. In an hour we were over
the Kankakec River; and seeing no suf.
ticient object to be served by going,
pulled the valve rope, and we tended
gradually downward for fifteen or
twenty minutes. by this time we had
sunk to within thousand feet of the
earth, when stilf 'groundcr'. or sur
face breeze, caught US and took us of
10 southwest.
alt was about three.thirty in nc
afternoons; and there was a good DIAL
too much air stirring to handle the bal.
loon comfortably. But let her settle
to within two hundred and fifty feet of
the fences and bushes. and had Just
tossed out one of our grapnels, when
Stevens. who had been busily writing
his press account Of the ascent. looked
out and suddenly exclaimed:
professor, there's the railway
ahead!'
ut was q branch line of the North
ern Indiana, l think; and at that point
the track ran pretty nearly east and
west We were coming from north.
east. to cross 1t diagonally. When the
reporter spoke, we were mile or a
mile and a.half, perhaps, from it-tly.
ing along quite fast.
There's freight train. tool
Stevens added, Just coming around
that curve, from behind the woodsl
: "The train, long heavy one, was ~