The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-01-24
AN INrEREsTING OCCASION.
Incidents Graphically Told-The Foot Guards Closing Entertainment Last Night--The Series a Fine Success.

AO SOiiAHiSiilS OL eiAS Fl NPSiA Eighty Minutes in the Heavens" have been so general that when MT. D. s. Thomas stepped upon the stage at Warner Hall last evening there was a hush of expectancy throughout the vast audience. While he was to all appear ances picture of calm composure, 1t was plain that he was surprised and a trifle abashed at the large gathering, and it was several moments before he resumed his natural ease and confi- dence. He preceded his lecture by ex- plaining that he was not balloonist by birth, had never followed it as a business matter, and was unwilling to pose as professional aeronaut, posi- tion which the newspapers seemed bound that he should fill. His expe- rience was simply that of an amateur, whose love for the excitement prompts him to take a sail in the air whenever an opportunity occurs. Once under way incident and adventure followed in rapid succession, each illustrated by large and finely drawn stereopticon views. No sooner did the audience be- come absorbed in one picture than it disappeared and was replaced by an- other still more startling.
 There were no waits Beginning with his first ascension in Philadelphia, the speaker gave a rapid resume of his thirty-four voyages in mid-air.
 Included in this experience was the famous balloon wedding in Cincinnati, where the ceremony was performed at an altitude of two miles; the wreck upon the Insurance building in New Haven; the wild trip through eastern Massachusetts; the run away balloon; ladies in a thunder storm; perilous voyage from Bridgeport; twilight at an altitude of two miles, and many other incidents in the life of an aeronaut that held his listeners to the closest atten- tion. During his graphic description of the loss of Professor Donaldson in Lake Michigan one might have heard pin drop. Perhaps the deepest silence was when he gave his description of a mid night concert at an altitude of eleven thousand feet. The party was com posed of Pittsburg society ladies, whose unexpected absence during the night brought fearful forebodings of disaster and threw the city into a wild panic. Although MT. Thomas has his lecture protected by copyright, he has kindly permitted us to take down the follow- ing description of this strange scene:
 Four braver girls never travelled in the air Most of the time they sat upon the edge of the basket, chatting merrily. The sun disappeared and the brilliant illuminations along the west ern horizon was absolutely indescriba- ble. It was indeed a. moment for high CT and holier thoughts. As twilight slowly crept around us levity and nlirth disappeared, and naught but the sweet est melody came from tue lips of our passengers. It was a scene of sublimi- ty that could not fail to affect the stern- est heart. Conversation was hushed! For a full hour hardly a word was spoken, but with reverential thoughts as if in the very presence pf their Maker, a low sweet harmony involun- tarily fioated out upon the darkening night and faded away in the silent evening air. Even the heart of the brave Donaldson was touched. He deeply felt the solemity of the occasion, and tear which trickled down and lodged upon my hand in the basket be- low I shall always believe was the first and only one that had dimmed his eye since childhood.
 An absolute silence for time and dy of the English Hymnal, Nearer My God to Thee" As the old familiar air came from the lips of our fair voyagers and was waited away upon the cool midnight breeze there were many moistened eyes in the little party.
 Nearer, my God, to Thee,
 Nearer to Thee,
 Fen though it be a cross
 That raiseth me;
 Still all my song shall be,
 Nearer my God, to Thee,
 Nearer to Thee!
 Is it possible that Sarah F. Adams, who wrote these beautiful words, or Lowell Mason, who set them to music, ever dreamed.in their most ambitious moments of the universal popularity their production was destined to attain! Certainly they never dreamed of cir cumstances and surroundings like these. In every country and cline where the English language predomi- mates it is a favorite selection, from the fashionable church choir down through every grade of people to the bedside of the dying peasant. We. hear the beau- tiful melody rising above the forest in the secluded retreat of a Methodist campmeeting; we hear it from millions of children's voices in our Sabbath schools; we hear it as the closing num- Der to a sacred concert; we hear it in the cabin of the ocean steamer as the passengers and neatly dressed sailors assemble for Sunday service, and, more frequent than all we hear the sweet words and sweeter melody ascending on high and bidding fitting farewell over the graves of our departed friends. The Congregationalist the Presbyteri- an, the Baptist, the Methodist, alike honor it as does the Church of England, while it is one of the few selections in the Protestant Hymnal that our Ro- man Catholic friends look upon with the best of favor The strange scene and its strange surroundings will never be forgotten, for it was the nearest re- alization of the music of the angels that the living are permitted to enjoy"
 Received by the President.
 Washington, Jan. 23-The president and Mrs. Cleveland were at home to- night to congress and the federal judi