Morning journal and courier., 1894-04-04
Dropping From the Clouds,


 Robert V. V. Sewell, in the Artists Ad ventures series In the Century, descrfbe his first and last balloon ascension. was In 1886, when MT. Sewell was a stu dent at the Academic Julian, that he mad his venture, taking advantage of publ
 ascension. When the artist and the aero nsut entered the basket the ropes wen cast of.
 We did not rise. and being informed that VIC must leave behind either a sand bsg or my heavy winter overcost, heroi cslly sacrificed the latter. Standing ir the basket, tossed 1t to friend, when, prestoI he, as we'll ss the rest of the world, sank out of sight. At that moment I sAi down. I can still recall the howl of deri. sion and delight which greeted this conn monplsce act.
 The cries of the spectators were succeed, ed by e most profound silence, broker only by the fesrsome cresking of the vii low packet, as my companion leaned from eide to side.
 vas soon aware of another sound, tC which my ears seemed slowly to b:com. attuasd-the low, muda=d roar of th, great city which produced a continued note almost as pure ss a musical tone, but lower in pitch than any note of the musi. cal scale.
 The barometer coon showed an elevation of half 6 mile, and, looking over ths side of the car q was still seated on the noor) I saw the whole of Paris pass beneath me the public buildings, the Madeleine with its bright coppsr-green roof, the toy esths- dral of Notre Dame on lite little leland The distance was 90 great that sli eiddinesi was gone, and the roar of the city ws' hushed. Throwing cut much of our store of sand, we rose into great cumuloui clouds. Tue barometer indicated height of two miles; the air had the pure but thin feeling of an Alpine raountain-top There was TO sight, no noise gave the pat ter of the feet of two pigeons on the sum init of the balloon. They had refused C leave us, and, after lowering like land birds about & ship, had settled on our rig ging.
 In the utter silence of these heights th, novice, awed by the sublinity of the situ stion, has no thought of danger. In vast, sightless, silent void In which tht bubble hung selt-polsei impressed tht mind with 8 sense, not of violence, but o calm. Yet dspger there was, and tha must immineut. AD1lCurIT scanning tn' barometer. my companion announced tha we were falling. Seizlpg bag of tissue papers, he threw a handful from the car Instantly they disappeared, but above us We were rushing down to the city ss ar angle of about forty-dve degrees. Nov the two pigeons left the balloon. and ever this slight diminution of weight gave us short respite. As We approached tbs esrtl we struck the ground bretEs. which VI saw would carry us nearly the entiri length of the city. Quickly diresting our | selves of our coats and vsistcos.s, VIC tool
 s rapid inventory of the pitifully small re msinder of bsllast, with a view to keepini the air ship sfoat as long ss possible. To a novice who has ever gone down | toboggsn slide the horror of that rusl over the spires and chimneys of the grea city may be dimly shown If he can imag | inc his sensations increased 6 thousand fold. Collision with building meant al
 most sure death, while the speed was E, great that landing in a boulevard was aI | impossibility. Tho roar of one street ss | grew lsss distinct was quickly followed b, | the roar of the next as the excited and in | terested Parisiars watched our flight. Sev eral times we avoided collision only b | throwing out a coat, basket or bottle, th
 balloon each time taking & slight bound \ and clearing the obstacle