Evening star., 1894-04-02
DROPPING FROM THE CLOUDS.
An Artist Describes His Sensations in
an Uncomfortable Balloon.


Robert ". v. Sewell. in the Artists Ad-
ventures Series in the Century for April, de-
scribes his first and last balloon ascension.
1t was in 1885, when Mr.. Sewell was a
student at the Academy Julian, that he
made his venture. taking advantage of a
public ascension. When the artist and the
aeronaut entered tn. basket, the ropes were
cast off.
We did not RISE and being informed that
we must leave behind either a sand bag or
my heavy winter overco at 1 heroically sac
rificed the latter. Starding in the basket I
tossed II to a friend when, presto! he as
we'll as the rest of the world sank out of
sight. At that moment l sat down. / can
still recall the howl of derision and delight
which greeted this commonplace act.
The cries of the spectators were succeed
ed by most profound sileL ce, broken only
by the fearsome creaking of the willow bas-
ket. as my companion leaned from side to
side.
1 was soon aware of another sound, to
which my ears seemed slowly to become
attur ed-the low muffled roar of the great
city, which produced a contiru ued note al
most pure a musical tone. but lower
in pitch than any note Of the musical scale.
The barometer soon showed an elevation
Of falf mile, and, looking over the side of
the car q was still seated the floor, 1
saw the whole 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 dis
tance 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 cumuluS clouds. The
barometer indicated height of two miles
the air had 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 of the balloon.
They had refused to leave us, and after
r6G hCIt CHI In h1 I'd
settled our rigging.
In the utter silence of these heights the
novice. awed by the sublimfty of the situa-
ton, has no thought of danger The vast
sightless, silent void in which the bubble
hung self-poised in pressed the mind with
sense. not Of viCieLce, but of calm Yet
danger there was. and that nest imminent
Anxiously scanning the barometer, my COM
panioE announced that we were falling.
Selling bag Of tissue papers, he threw a
handful from the car. Insta1 tly they dis
appeared, but above We ere rushin g
down to the city az an angle of about forty
hva degrees. Now the two pigeons left the
balloon, and even this slight diminution OF
weight gave us short respite. AS We ap-
preached the earth we struck the ground
breeze which we saw would carry US nearly
the entire length of the city. Quickly di-
vesting ourselves of our coats and waist
coGts we took a rapid inventory of the
pitifully small remainder of ballast, with
view to keeping the air ship atioat as long
as possible.
To a novice who has ever gone down a
tobocgan sli lie the hCrror OF that rush over
the spires and chimreys of the great city
may be dimiy shown if he imagine his
sensations increased a thousandfold. Colli-
sion with a building meant almost sure
death, while the speed was so great that
landing in a boulevard was an impossible
ity. The roar of one street it grew less
distir ct quickly followed by the roar
of the next, as the excited and interested
Parisians watched our flight. Several times
we avoided collision only by throwing out
coat, basket or bottle, the balloon each
time taking a slight bound and clearing g
the obs tacle.