The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-09-14
FLYING DOWN TO DEATH.
The Latest Tragedy in Aeronautics
and the Earliest.
From the Nev York Advertiser.

and the Earliest
From the NeD York Advertiser.
81 will go up in that balloon tonight IL I
die for it There has been fooling enough
about my part Of this exposition pro-
gramme"
So spoke brave little Gertie Carmo on the
Detroit exposition grounds one evening re-
Gently, when her friends urged that the
weather was very unfavorable. The wind
was coming and going in short and fitfuI
gusts. a light rain was falling, and at Z
o'clock it was already beginning TO grow
dark. But her ascension had been put off
from day to day on account OF the weather
the spirit of her art was aroused, and to a
hnal remonstrauce she said:
1T is no use talking, it will probably be
the last ascension that will ever make but
am going up. You people are all singing
the same song tonight. l tell you, as l
told them, that nothing will prevent my
going up. See that the balloon Is in shape
to do the fair thing by me, Curly.n
This last TO her assistant, who was inf1at-
ing the globe with hot air. 1t is impossible
not TO admire such nerve. 1t looks fool
hardy, but 1t is Just such spirits as Gertie
Carmo who have made all the startling dis
coveries. 1t was the spirit Of Columbus
and Mungo Park, of Bernard Palissy and
Montgolfier, the first great balloonist.
Many fail. but when one succeeds the world
is enriched by his success.
The globe was soon inflated and 5. 900
people looked on as Gertie Carmo took hold
of the trapeze and the swaying bulk was
released and shot upward. The next in
slant strong air current struck and swept
it against the electric light tower. 1t swung
off again.
The crowd held its breath.
At the hight of $50 feeu another current
hurled it directly upon the tower There
was a crash as the electric light globe
smashed. The aeronaut found herself for a
moment tangled in an electric light burner.
When she succeeded in extricating herself
she was hanging by her hands. She hung
there in mid-air second and then loosened
her hold and fell
When they reached her side she was still
breathing, but in a few seconds all was over
The rest may be Left to the Imagination
She was but % years old. native OF Ger
many, and her true name was Margaret
Clsusen. The saddest feature of the case is
that her parents arrived in Detroit thu
evening to visit her, whom they had not
seen for three years. They found only her
manRled corpse aud weeping sister
Ihe spirit OF aeronauts Is necessarily that
OF extreme daring aud the record of traR-
edies among them is appalling. The singular
TACT is, however, that the earliest aeronauts
were most successful in landing, and as late
as 1870 historian of the art asserted that
down to that time only twenty-five persons
had lost their lives in balloon accidents
Certainly twice that many have since been
killed.
The first balloon of which we have a Ger
tain record was sent up by Stephen and
Joseph Montgolfier, June 5, 1888 They
used hot DIR. Only five months later Pilatre
dc Rozier and the Marquis d'Arland res
made the first ascent, rising 5000 feet
The world went wild over it, aud before the
Close of 1884 nearly 100 asoeuts were made
The next year blanchard, the greatest bal
loonst of the age, with DIR. John Jefferies
Of Boston, crossed the channel from Eng
land to France, and soon after occurred the
first accident. Pilatre de RoEtr and Ro-
maine Laiue tried TO cross the channel by a
combination Of hydrogen gas and hot air.
Their 'hontgolhere," as it was called, or
heater to supply the hot air as fast as 1t was
exhausted, set the gas on fire and they fell
5000 feet, striking on q rock on the French
coast.
Blanchard died in 1909, and his wife, who
had often assembled with him, made many
daring ascents alone At length, in 1919.
she attempted 70 go up from the TivoH gar
den in Paris with fireworks exploding be-
low the car as she arose. The wind carried
the tire into the globe, it exploded and the
brave lady was dashed 30 pieces on a house
top dreen, the eminent English aeronaut
made l,4O0 nscents in thlrty-six years
and fell into the sea twice. John
Wise, the American aeronaut, passed from
st. Louis TO Henderson, N. VI, $50 niles
in little over nineteen hours, or very
nearly a mile per minute. In 1904
Lussac outdid all his professors by rising
L., 900 feet and a little later reached rs, 900
feet; but in 1862 Messrs. Glnisher and
Colwell, for the Royal Society, outdid oil
before and after them 10y rising 81, 900 feet,
or seven miles above the earth. Birds
thrown out OF the car fell like stones, and
must have gone down nearly six miles be-
fore reaching a sust aiming atmosphere.
10 1860 Mr.. Thurston was carried up from
Adrian. Mich, while holding to the ropes OF
balloon, and what was thought to be his
skeleton was afterward found In the north
ern woods. Since the parachute descent
and the trapeze have been added the aoci-
dents have been very numerous vet the
number who will venture increases rapidly.
There is wild fascination. The case of
Grlmwood, the Chicago journalist who was
lost with Prof. Donaldson, Ia still fresh in
the public memory. Pretty and daring
GertIe Carmo is but the last of many. the
brave and the rash, who have found death
in the air.