The Dickinson press., 1891-10-24
Swift Travelling.

A stirring incident took place not
long ago in %Courbevoie, when Paul
Leprince, the %aeronaut, and one ofhis
friends, made a balloon ascension.
They had reached an elevation OF fif-
teen hundred feet, when they began to
hear a peculiar whistling sound. Le-
prince climbed upon the ring, and dis
covered a tear, a few inches long, made
by the branch of a tree, against which
they had swept in their upward pas
sage. What followed is related by
Leprince in ILLUSTRATION.
At this moment, the sun dispelled
the clouds and shone with all its force
upon the balloon. This produced such
an expansion of gas that the valve
was not sufficient to lessen the strain,
and thefabric tore apart, with a noise
like the ~rustling of leaves. Through
the opening poured the gas in great
volumes.
eve are lost" cried my friend.
"The ballast" shouted /. "The bal
last"
In an instant two bags were thrown
out. saw by the barometer that we
were nearly five thousand feet from
the ground, and then the fall began.
Wethrew out everything ofany weight,
and prepared to cast off our clothing,
and resolved to cling, at the moment
OF striking, to the netting above.
Fortunately there was a strong
wind blowing, which carried US along
at the rate OF thirty-five orforty miles
an hour, and enabled us to fall at an
angle, thus %softening the shock.
The balloon was violently shakenin
it's flight, AMI kept swinging and sway
ing in q horrible manner, but this mo.
ton was, after all, what saved us.
During of the most vigorous o.
these movements, the lower part Of
the balloon was thrown to the upper
part OF the netting, and rested there
against the valve, i'll the shape OF a
dome, forming an immense parachute
At once the fall was sensibly arrested.
but we were still one hundred yards
from the ground. The time had come
to throw overheard our clothes, but
there proved to he no time.
Scarcely had we reached the ropes
attached to the ring; when q terrible
shock was felt; and we, the basket
and balloon, We're rolled over on thu
grounti together. We were not injur
ed, Eur did we even lose conscious
ness, and thus was IL fall OF nearly {
mile accomplished in less than fou,
minutcs.-Comp"nion.
A Sure Mark.
The tact thnt is born of true kind
hear'p|ness is thing for Which it.
possessor may well be admired anc
initiated. Il like your friend Grac'
Hunt a great deal better than lido Ell
len Mayo" said fourteen-year-olt
Tom to his sister Fanny at the tea
table, one evening.
"Why?" asked Fanny in some Sur
prise. 81 am sure Ellen is a good dea
brighter than Grace, and prettier
too"
"She may be" assented Tom, doubt
fully, "but l don't call her very polite
l told Grace that funny story fathe
read us out of Mr.. Blacks letter tc
, day, and she laughed and said it wa
, a splendid story, and that she SHOULD
i remember it and tell it to somebod
else. But when tried to tell it t
Ellen Mayo, she interrupted me bs
fore I'd got halfway through, sayin!
| ooh yes! 1 remember all about tina
| now; your sister told me a week age
it's about the man Who and sh
| went on and finished the story he
, self"
: at wasn't polite, ofcourse," admi,
| ted Fanny, "but l suppose she didn'
think how it would make you fee
: And, Tom, the fact is, told the stor
to Grace, too, at tho same time Ellie
heard it'll"
\ ~ don't care anything about that,
8 said Tom, decidedly, "except ! lii
, her all the better for it. She didn
0ake msfsAl uncomfortable and a