The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-12
PAINTED HIGH IN AIR.
AerOnaut Allen Overcome by Gas
when His Balloon Was Two Miles
High.

From the Boston Journal
whats the matter with the profess
sor?"
He must be i'll"
MY Godl He's fallingi Catch holdg'
The gray haired aeronaut, who had
made scores of balloon voyages in safety,
had slipped from his seat. His eyes were
set and CLASSY. Foam was on his lips.
When the two men who were passengers
in the basket below noticed that some
thing was wrong he was falling, and in
another moment would have dropped like
a plummet, through sheer space TO the
earth, two miles below. His body had
sunk past the edge of the car when the
men with desperate grip seized each of
them a leg and held 1t with all their
strength.
1t was a horrible situation. They tried
to drag the body of the professor into
the basket of the balloon. But the weight
was beyond their strength They could
only hold on. Far below them the fields
and woods and roads of Middlesex were
spread out like a map. Far away to the
south was the blue line OF the sea. Over
head the golden ball of the October sun
glowed fiercely. The wind in the upper
them on toward the ocean, which grew
nearer and nearer. while the face Of the
country by an optical Illusion, seemed TO
drift along beneath them, while their car
hung motionlesS in midheaven.
The insensible aeronaut was Prof. James
X. Allen of Providence, and the two men
Ar IT.
w. l.. Rombough of Lowell.
The balloon ascension was the GROWING
spectacular event of the Merchants Fes-
tival in Lowell, and yesterday morning
the majestic air-ship, City of Lowell, gally
decked with flags and streamers, its silk
en- sides bellying with the pressure OF 9O,-
600 cubic feet OF gas, tugged at the stout
mooring ropes that held 1t to the North
common. Ten thousand people watched
IL and cheered the veteran professor and
his two companions, who had been select
ed TO take the aerial trip, as they took
their places.
AT Ii o'clock the ropes were let go, and
slowly the monster rose straight into the
air. Zen thousand shouts greeted its
flight, and three hats were exultingly
waved in response to the greeting. Peer
ing over the edge of the basket the three
saw the earth apparently drop from be-
meath them. Then the housetops and the
f1ag-poles and the tall steeples sank away.
The thousands of upturned faces grew in
distinguishable to the aeronauts, and the
streets of the city looked like chart. The
Merrimac was Ike a broad silver ribbon
running through it, and the wooden nights
Of Dracut began to grow lilliputian in
their dimensions.
The wind was from the north, slightly
east, and from the way the landscape spun
along beneath them, Il was evident that
the balloon was travelling at good rate.
sim it continued to rise, and at about lilo
the professor observed that they were two
miles above the surface. Sullivan and DR..
Rombough left the care of the balloon to
Prof. Allen, and were deep in admiration
OF the magnificent panorama spread out
before their eyes.
doctor?" asked Sullivan, and Rombough
assented.
In the basket they had brought half a
dozen homing pigeons from the loft of a
Lowell fancier. The two men took the
little feathered creatures out and with
fine thread bound to the leg of each a
BIT OF paper, on which was written the
time and the estimated hight Of the ball
loon. One by one the birds were released,
and shot downward like arrows from a
DOW. In minute they were lost to sight
them.
Suddenly they noticed that the profess
or was reeling in his seat, which was
seated and close to the neck of the bal
loon. They managed to catch his legs
as he Eel, but, az has been described,
were unabNrto drag him into the car.
The balloon fioated steadily on. For a
snort time 1t continued to rise, and the
presence of gas in the air showed that
there was leak somewhere in the en-
velope. The professor being closer to x,
had evidently been overcome by the fumes
and tainted. Sullivan and Rombough
but held on heroically, although their
arms were nearly dragged from their
sockets. Then the ballon slowly began
TO sink, and the air was free again.
DR.. Rombough and his companion
hardly dared to move for fear that the
basket would tip more than it was al
IL
They knew nothing about the manage
ment of the huge air ship, and although
two ropes hung down from above, neither
dared to try and use them. One was at
tached to the valve, the other was sewn
into one of the breadths of the clotn
and when pulled would tear a. rent in the
balloons side. Which was which they did
not know, and the professor was sense
less weight, trailing in the air.
The two men held doggedly to their
burden, and the balloon continued to
float southwark, gradually nearing the
ground They fioated over the village of
North Billerica, and saw the people come
out of their houses to look at the strange
apparition in the heavens. Haggets
pond cleaned like a sheet of FURNISHED
metal beneath them. Then, at the lower
level, the wind took slant and sent
relieving them of the apprehension that
they were being driven to sea.
Down, down. down, sank the balloon,
its great sides beginning to bag and flap.
1t was inflated with water gas, which soon
loses its buoyancy. Like some wounded
monster it slowly trailed along. Present
face; then 800 and then 1O0 Still the two
men chung to the body.
The balloon was over Lexington now,
but far from the village A grove of trees
rose up in their course. The settling bal
loon could not clear them. Sullivan man
aged to dislodge bag Of sand, and the
great bag rose sufficiently to clear the
trees. Beyond them was a field in when
several farmers were at work. To saw
that they were astonished at the vision
of the balloon rolling up over the grove
is to express 1t mildly.
Sullivan and DR.. Rombough called lust
lily to them and they ran toward the bai-
loon: Just then i gave lurch and the
drag rope with the anchor attached was
released and trailed over the ground. Ths
farmers caught ii and soon pulled the
tTeroSInpeS i nalo e aq%n' White and
released their hold of Aliens legs. 1t was
about noon; For fifty minutes they had