The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1894-04-05
DROPPING FROM THE CLOUDS.
An Artists Describes His Sensation in An
Uncomfortable Balloon.

Robert v. V. Sewall, in the Artists
AdventuressSe Series in the Century for
April, describes his first and last balloon
ascension. 1t was in 1886 when Mr..
Sewall was student at the Academy
Julian, that he made his venture, TAX
ing advantage of public ascension.
When the artist and the aeronaut entered
the basket the. ropes were cast off.
We did not rise, and being informed
that we must leave behind either sand
bag or my heavy winter overcoat. /
heroically sacrificed the latter. Stand
ing in the basket I tossed it to a friend,
when, presto! he as we'll as the rest of
the world sank out of sight, At the
moment / sat down. lean still recall
the howl of derision and delight which
greeted this commonplace act. The
cries of the spectators were succeeded
by most profound silence, broken only
by the fearsome creaking of the willow
basket, as my companion leaned from
side to side.
I was soon aware of another sound, to
which my ears seemed slowly to become
attuned-the low muffled roar of the
great city, which produced a continued
note almost as pure as musical tone,
but lower in pitch than any note of the
musical scale.
The barometer soon showed an
elevation of half mile, and, looking
over the side of the car saw the hole
of Paris pass beneath me-the public
buildings, the Madeleine with it's bright
copper green roof, the toy cathedral of
Notre Dame on its little island. The
distance was SO great that all giddiness
was gone and the roar of the city was
hushed. Throwing out much of our
store of sand we arose into great cumu
lus clouds. The barometer indicated a
height of two miles; the air had 1.-The pure
but thin feeling of an Alpine mountain
top. There was no sight, no noise save,
the patter of the feet of two pigeons on
the summit of the balloon. They had
refused to leave US and after lowering
like land birds about ship had settled
ON our rigging.
the novice, awed by the sublimity of
the situation, has no thought of danger,
The vast. sightless, silent void in
which the bubble hung self-poised i'm
pressed the mind with sense, not of
violence. but of calm. Yet danger there
was, and that most imminent. Anx-
iousIy scanning sthe barometer, my COM
panion announced that we were falling.
SEEING bag ofstissue papers, he threw
dsAaAhAoA Ivan ohAS SeAA' oNASI
disappeared, but above US. We were
rushing down to the city at an angle of
about forty-tve degrees. Now the two
pigeons left the balloon, and even this
Slight diminution of weight gave us
a short respite. AS we approached the
earthswe struck the ground breeze which
we saw would carry us nearly the en-
tire length of the city. Quickly divesting
ourselves of our coats and waistcoats,
we took rapid inventory of the pitt
fully small. remainder of ballast, with a
view to keeping the air ship atloat as
long as possible.
To novice who has ever gone down a
toboggan slide the horror of that rush
over the spires. and chimneysssof the great
city may be dimly shown it he can i'm
agine his sensations increased a thous-
and foil. Collision with building meant
a lmost sure death, while the speed was
SO. great that landing in a boulevard was
an impossibiity. The roar.of one street
as it grew less distinct was quickly fol-
lowedsby the roar of the next, as the
excitedEand interested Parisians watched
our flight. Several times we avoided
collision only by throwing out coat,
basket or. bottle, the balloon each time
taking slight bound and clearing the
obstacle