Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-05-29
FALLING FROM THE CLOUDS.
An Artist Describes His Sensations In ..
Uncomfortable Balloon.

An Artist Describes His Sensations In an
Uncontrollable Balloon.
Robert Wv. Sewcll, in the Artists Ad-
ventures series in The Century, describes
his first and last balloon ascension.
1t was in 1855, when Mr.. Sewell was a
student at tho Academic Julian, that he
made his venture, taking advantage of a
public ascension. When the artist and the
aeronaut entered the basket, the ropes were
cast off. .H
We did not rise, and being informed that
we must leave behind either u sand bag OF
my heavy winter ovcrcoat I heroically
sacrificed the latter. Standing in the bas-
ket, tossed it to friend, when presto,
he as well as the rest of the world sank
out of sight! At that moment 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 a most profound silence, broken only
by the fearsome creaking of the willoy
basket as my companion leaned from side
to side.
was soon aware of another sound, to
which my ears seemed slowly to become
attuned-thc low, mufi1ed roar of the great
city, which produced continued note al
most as pure as u 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 tho side
of the carl was still seated on the flool
Il saw the whole of Paris beneath lie
the public buildings, the Madeleine with
its bright copper green roof, the toy cathe-
dral ofssSotrc Dame on its little island
The distance was SO great that all giddi-
ness was gone, and the roar Of the city
was hushed. Throwing out much of ouI
store Of sand, we rose into great cumulus
clouds. The barometer indicated a 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 pat
ter of the feet of two pigeons on the sum-
nit of the balloon. They had refused to
leave u.s. and after lowering like land birds
about ship had settled on our rigging.
In the utter silence of these heights the
novice, awed by the sublimity of the stu
alton, has no thought of danger. The vast,
sightless silent void in which the bubble
hung self poised impressed the mind with
Il sense not of violence, but of calm. Yet
tuCiS Ndoy SAiil i4hooV
rent. Anxiously scanning the barometer
my companion announced that we were
falling. Selling u bag of tissue papers, he
threw handful from the car. Instantly
they disappeared, put above us. We were
rushing down to the city at an angle of AZ
degrees. Now the two pigeons left tho bal
loon, and even this slight dilninution OF
weight gave us short respite. AS we ap-
l. Il
breeze, which we saw would carry us near
ly the entire length of the city. Quickly
diycsting ourselves of our coatE and waist
coats we took rapid inventory of the pit
fully small remainder of ballast, with q
view to keeping the airship asioat as long
as possible.
70 u novice who has ever some down n
toboggan slide the horror of that rush oveI
the spires and chimneys of tie great city
may be dinly shown if he can imagine his
sensations increased thousandfold. Col.
lsion with a building meant almost sure
death, while the speed was SO great that
landing in Il boulevard was an impossible
ity. The Ioar of one street as it grew less
distinct was quickly followed by the roa1
of the next as tho excited and interested
Parisians watched our flight. Several
times we avoided collision only by throw
ing out coat, basket or bottle, the ial-
loon each time taking slight bound and
clearing the obstacle.