The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1896-06-06
PARIS VENDOME COLUMN.
4 Few Words of Its History and the Facts
reI Il


The Vendome Colurlnin Paris. which
was destroyed by the Commune in 1871.
| was erected l,y NcpclconI., principally
! OF cannon taken at UlEl, to common D
rate the victory Of Au5tcrlitz in 1905.
1t was covered with four hundred and
| twenty-five bronze plaque. nodded in
b2S-rclicf to display the chief incidents
IN the Austrian campaign Of that year.
They were each three feet and eight
inches high, and formed n continuous
bond, nclosing thocolu1nn twenty-five
times as it circlcd to the top, the entire
length cf the spiral being eight hun
drc1 and forty feet. Instead of Charlie
mcgnc, as at first intended, it was sur
mounted by q statue of the first Ma
polcon in Roman costume and
crowned with laurel. After several
pcstpcncmcnts it was brought to the
ground on the 10th Of May in the pres
ence Of many thouclnds who had
waited for hours to witness the spec
taclc.
Owing to some engineering difficult
ties II cutting the base it could not be
brought down at the time originally
fixed. The members Of the Commune
attended in state to witness the affair,
and scntinel3 were posted about hclf
way down the Euc de Ia Paiz to pre-
vent the crowd from approaching too
close, as up to the last moment acci-
dents were feared. At half P2Gt i've in
the cftcrnocn the rope were ti~htcrcd,
and suddenly the column was Observed
to lean forward toward Rue dc ID
PciE. then finally to foil with dull,
hccvy tLud, raj. ing as it did so an in
ncncc cloud CT dust. Ecfcrc it touched
the ground it ccrarctc1 into three
parts by its own weight, AMI on roach
ing the bed Of dirt aal fagot5 to re-
ccivc it broke into at least thirty pieces.
The statue Of Nopolcon, on reaching
the ground, broke CT from its pedestal
at the ankles, then at the llnccs, the
wait, and the neck, while the iron
ratings which surrounded the summit
of the monument were shivcrcd to
pieces. Shortly after the column had
fallen spectators were permitted to
traverse the pl3ce towitncss the wreck,
but were not permitted to take away
any Of the fragments.
SOME LONG BALLOON TRIPS.
A Vain Effort to Gross tho Mediterranean
-VoyaGing from England to Germany.
The longest balloon voycTc Ca record
was one undertaken in 1858, il which
the distance Travelled was little more
than one thousand two hundred miles
Three voyagcr3 On that occasion, says
Hcrrison's Magazine, made an ascent
in Franco, with the intention of cross
Ing Mediterranean and landing in Al
geria. The wind, however, proving
unfavorablc, carried them toward Ger
isca. When they were near that
Island the balloon descended toward
the water, and for time their lives
were in great jeopardy. by throwing
out all their apparatus they succeeded
in getting the balloon to rise to a
height of between two and three thou
sand feet, and, travelling on to Italy,
they safely descended il that country
at little village near Brcscia An
other balloon voyage cf nearly the
same length was undertaken in No
vember, 1886. On the 7th of that
month, Charles Green, with two friends,
ascended near London in balloon,
crossed the channel from Dover to
Calais, and, passing over France and
Belgium, found themselves the next
over the Rhine. Proceeding
further they arrived at Viborg, where
they descended about eight q. n. on
the sth of November. a recent bal
loon voyage of NJ. lIallct. the French
lasted thirty-six and one
half hours and would have been the
longest on record if he had not landed
In the middle Of it. He left Villctte on
the 23d of October at six p. m. and
next morning landed at Ottonvillc, in
Alsace, to clear the snow from the
balloon. At the end of twenty-five min
ates hestarted again and landed near
Coblentz at eight p. m. An hour and a
half later he landed once more in q
valley on Tauna mountains, and fin
ally, on the 25th of October, at six a.
m,, at Walben, in uesse. Two or three
have proposed to cross the
In a balloon, but so far it has
begun and ended in talk only.