St. Paul daily globe., 1889-06-18

IL was alreaQy u&nC. Inc balloon was
swaying In the breeze and the arrows
Of light in the East told us that the sun
was on his way to our Longitude. l
when my bold friend told me to
take a seat in the box and keep
a firm hold of the cords by which it
was suspended. He Joined me in the
car, and, reaching out. cut the ropes
which held the balloon captive. We
arose quickly and soon the town was
but spot on the landscape, which
seemed tiny picture of itself SO far be-
low us. As we arose 1t grew lighter
till suddenly we saw the sun over
against the eastern horizon. 1t looked
as though we were higher than the
sun. There was quite o current
of air at our altitude and we
were being carried rapidly eastward.
Now for the test said the German, and
he turned and twisted and adjusted sew
eral levers and handles which were
above us within reach. There was
jerky: swaying motion given to the
machine and we shot directly nOrthward
for moment, but another lever was
pulled and we seemed to stand still,
although stiff, westerly breeze blew
over US. What time is lt?' asked my
companion. 1t was $40 o'clock, and l
told him so. we will be in San Fran
cisco at g. said he. This was the first
intimatiOn had had of the extent OF
our trial trip.
"sLOok down. said he. I did so. but
could see nothing except confused
mass of dull color. with an occasional
patch of darker or lighter shade passing
to the east with exceeding speed. Il
can't distinguish anything said I. No
wonder was the reply, we are travel
ing westward at the rate of thousand
miles an hour, or rather we are re-
naming still, held by the attraction Of
the magnetic pole, while under us the
earth moves eastward on its axis 1000
that required half an hour to pass, my
guide told me was the great prairies Of
the West. The Rocky mountains seemed
like bright thread as they flew be-
meath us.
MY friend became anxious after a
while and often inquired the time. ana
then made calculations on some paper
he had brought with him. At $40 he
reached up and reversed all the levers,
which he had set in place at starting,
and with considerable of an Os
cillation the balloon seemed to start
again into motion. We saw the earth's
features. Almost under us was a city
and away to the west stretched the blue
of the ocean. That is the Pacific and
the city should be San Francisco, where
the clocks should correspond with your
time. We will descend said my con-
ductOr.
"Pulling the escape valve, our bal
loon slowly collapsed and we landed in
a street in suburb of San Francisco.
No rhn fol
some yarn of having made short
ascension. We entered the first public
house we found and the clock on the
wall showed the same time as my watch.
In other words, we had aScended from
the roof of my store in Ohio and waited
there till San Francisco came to US.
'''How will we get back? l asked the
inventor. He seemed paralyzed at the
question, and for moment did not
answer. Then he broke out in self-re-
vilings. Fool that l was, I never
thought of that!' he exclaimed. For
all my years of labor have been only
fool; l can travel only in one direc-
tion.' The man seemed to suffer SO
much disappointment that pitied him
and tried to cheer him up, but to no
purpose. L will go round the world in
twenty-four hours he said, if i! don't
do anything else.' He proposed that
we again ascend and complete the cir
cult of the earth, coming down again at
Columbus, but declined. l had had
enough.
'.He said he would try it alone, and he
did. The next morning the balloon,
having been filed at the city gas works,
he scared aloft. l watched him till
knew by the sudden disappearance of
the ballOn out over the Pacific that
he cast his magnetic anchor and that [
was flying away from him at LOCO miles
an hour.
81 do not know what happened to
him. I never saw him again."