Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1895-07-07
had crowded up pretty close to the

deIOHduJ, DIS ne cdIuS lnCO the CIRCLE 10
make every thing ready; keep back, or
some Of you will get hurt, with this
basket thrashing about here for by
this time the basket had been fastened
on, and the balloon was filled out near
ly full
"The balloonist threw into the bas-
ket several bundles of circulars which
he was going to throw out handful by
handful, as he rose through the air, the
proprietors of various stores having
taken this then original method Of
distributing their circulars and dodg-
ers.
Every thing was now ready. The
hot air had been shut off, the mouth o2
the balloon had been closed, and the
balloonist had arranged his circulars
ready to throw out dozen or so at a
time as he went up.
Let go the ropesp he shouted.
"And the great sphere shot up into
the air, with white papers futtering
out from all sides.
81 could never tell exactly how it
happened" continued my seatmate,
but suppose it was a mixture of boy
ish curiosity and a sudden pressure
from behind as the crowd surged for
ward; but know that / suddenly STUN
bled forward and fell upon the coil OF
the drag rope that was being rapidly
taken up. In falling, my foot in some
way became entangled in the rope, so
that loop in it caught me by one an
kle, and quick as a flash l was going up
i,,4o . al, fl,o., &C. Ia in
ute, hanging head downward, while a
great cry of horror was sent after me
by the people below.
You may be sure that no more sur
prsed boy ever left terra frma than 7
was, when l saw the earth suddenly
dropping away from me, as it seemed.
Fortunately l did not lose my
head though the position was certain
ly favorable for such result. In
stinctively | grasped the rope that was
hanging down beside me, and hung on
for dear life.
The aeronaut above me apparently
knew nothing of what was going on be-
low his car, for the dry goods and
house furnishing circulars continued to
flutter down past me in undiminished
quantities.
He had doubtless heard a great cry
from the crowd but interpreted it pro-
badly as occasioned by the sight of a
balloon ascension, which was then
more of a novelty in that region than
it would be to-day.
After minute ! was able to get my
foot out of the loop in which it had
caught, and so let myself down into an
upright position The balloon was ris-
ing steadily, but there was no more
jerking or apparent motion to the rope
than there would have been had 1t beeri
suspended from high beam in a barn,
and this alone made it possible for me
to cling to it.
Il now found that | could twist ond
leg around the rope, where it crossed
the other foot, could nearly remove
the weight from my hands, wNjch was 4
great relief. ] knew then that | had q
chance to get out Of the fix ! was in, for
| could now alternately rest my feet
and my hands.
treasured by this I looked No at tho
balloon above me- and conceived the
idea of climbing up to it, for, like most
country boys l was expert at climbing.
The rope had caught me before half
of il had been taken from the ground
so that the distance up to the car was
much less than it might have been. !
found no very great difficulty in gradu-
ally climbing up to position under the
| car. stopping very often to rest.
1T has always seemed strange to me
that the man above din't discover
meanwhile that he had boy hanging
on behind but it can perhaps be eX-
planned b. the fact that he was an old
hand at the business, and, as sailing
through the air was no novelty to him,
ne didn't spend any time looking at ths
scenery below.
He sat there in the middle Of the
car. calmly tossing out circulars and
smoking his pipe while ! climbed up
toward him so cautiously that | pre-
sumo / didn't jerk the rope bit. |
wonder that | hadn't shouted 20 him
at the very first, but it didn't enter my
head to do anything but hang on and
climb.
when I had slowly climbed well up
under the car, without thinking what
the effect would be- I shouted, Hal
Loaf" and the next instant was almost
ierked off the rope, fnr the ballOonist
gave jump that very nearly upset the
car, and when | caught sight Of his face
after be had turned around two or
three times, trying in a dazed way to
find out where the voice came from, it
cautiously over the edge Of the basket.
"How in the name Of he began,
but suddenly cut it short. Hold on a
minute longer" he stouted.
"And in a twinkling he had made a
moose in the end of a piece Of rope that
was lying in the car. and had passed it
down, moose end first, through the
wicker-work bottom Of the basket
"'Put one foot into the loop he call
ed out. and l will tie the other end of
the rope here, to support your weight.
That will take the strain off your hands
i'll can get you into the car
Tt was a great relief to have the
strain of my weight taken off my hands
and feet. With one foot In the loop
could hang on very comfortably. But
then a serious question arose. How was
| to get into the basket? An attempt
to climb up over the side might upset
that frail affair.
"'Wait a minute called out the aer-
onaut I'll cut out two of the ribs of
the basket, right here in the bottom,
and then, by springing the next one on
each side back little. guess you can
crawl up through and this was done q
minute later.
q can tell you I was glad when
found myself sitting in the bottom Of
the basket, resting.
How long has it been since we left
the ground?' / asked.
THE aeronaut looked at his watch.
Inst Rrn minutes he said