The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-08-20

used to hasten the imitation, and the
flames ignited the balloon. Some excited
spectators shouted to- let go, and the
wCrkmen dropped the guy rope. Nine.
| Cannon in her ballet costume, was car
| ried up head downward, like a flying
| trapeze performer. Thousands Of onlOok-
ers witnessed her perilous ascent, power
| less to help her. Soon the fire burned a
| hole in the balloon, allowing the gas to
| escape, and this caused speedy descent.
| The balloon found landing on house !
| top and the madame escaped with lew
| bruises.
|. w. A. Ward, Sioux City aeronaut, was
| equally lucky. He made an ascension at
| Lakeview, To-, July 5, before crowd OF
| 5000 people, and when at a height Of more
than $50 feet his parachute tore loose but
did not open, and he fell to the ground
| in the midst Of the crowd, causing
whirlwind of excitement. To the great
surprise of the doctors who examined him
he did not receive fatal injuries. -
| At Kansas City. earlier in the season,
| Howard Twis9, son Of a former mayor
! Of that town, borrowed a balloon and
| attempted an ascension and parachute
| jump for the entertainment of his friends.
! It was at Chelsea Park, a suburban resort
| on the Kansas side Of the line. He as
cended as it appeared to the spectators,
| fully 500 feet when the balloon was caught
| in a sudden blast of wind and capsized
L
young Twiss, the balloon and the para:
! chute all came tumbling to the earth in
! a heap together. Luckily, the young ANA
| teur aeronaut and his trappings fell first
| into the branches Of a big tree. Then
| through the thick foliage Twiss came
tumbling to the ground, the force of his
| fall much broken. He was picked up I'M
| conscious and carried to a hospital. The
surgeons found several bones broken, but
said he would recover. 1t was, however,
regarded as nothing short Of 6 miracle
that one should fall 500 feet and still live.
1t is thought that Twiss will not try bal
looming again. He has reason to believe
! that once was enough for him.
An unexpected balloon ride carried Eu-
| gene Mccarthy, a Vermont farmer, to
height Of 5000 feet, and, strange to say,
he returned to earth. not a corpse, but
the same rugged Green Mountain boy.
This sensational voyage was made at the
Mad River Valley fair In September, 1897,
in a hot air balloon. While assisting in
the prelimlnaries for an ascension to be
made by a young woman in tights, Nc
Carthy got tangled in the car ropes, was
made prisoner by accident, and he shot
into the air far above the bare top Of
Bald mountain. More than 1900 men,
women and children witnessed the re-
markable flight. In the first confusion of
the start upward the spectators did not
recognize Mccarthy in the balloon. They
Dangling
low the big canvas bag and naturally
thought, as everything went up noiseless-
ly, that his presence there was an unad-
Vertised part of the programme.
What made the double ascension still
more interesting to them was the every
day appearance of the man. He was
dressed, not in stage ballet costume like
the woman, but in modest farm clothes,
Therefore the crowd sent up a rousing
cheer to the balloon. In answer the young
woman, who rested comfortably on the
trapeze bar, bowed and threw kisses to
her admirers. AS for the other performer
the man in the shirt sleeves, he seemed
frightened He neither bowed nor waved
his hand, but held on tight and took no
notice of the spectators. They watched
him rise to a height of $500 feet, where,
like his companion, he was merely a dot
on the end of a thread. At this point the
young woman said good by to Mccarthy
and took her parachute jump downward
He naturally preferred her company in
that lonely region, but with true Green
Mountain grit he held on to the ropes and
patiently awaited developments.
HOW MCCARTHY LANDED.
Freed of the weight of the girl and
parachute which dropped toward the fair
grounds, Mccarthy and his airship Ieaped
800 feet higher. Personally he was salts
fed with $500 feet, but he was compelled
to obey the law of nature. He closed his
eyeS-pOSSlDly he pFdyeQ-n0 nelQ his
breath and grasped the ropes tighter. At
an altitude Of 1900 feet the balloon floated
lazily in the still mountain air. Far above
Bald Mountain he took q. panoramic view
of the SCENERY, which showed the Mon
treal mountain in Canada, the white
peaks in New Hampshire, the whole
sweep of Vermont to the south and Lake
Champlain and the Adirondacks in New
York state. But the man in the balloon
soon tired of his view. He then waited
for the hot, smoky air in the bag to cool
and take him home. His descent was as
easy and graceful as the parachute drop
Of the young woman. He landed unin-
1ured not half mile from the fair
grounds. People surrounded him as they
would hero. In a few words he told the
story Of his wonderful experience in mid
air. then hitched up his horse jumped
into his wagon and drove home. He has
since died comfortably in bed.
Prof Meright, an Austrian aeronaut and
scientist of note, was reported to have
made a most extraordinary attempt and
failure to commit suicide in balloon re-
Gently. For years he had made ascen-
sfons from the Prater In Vienna on pleas
ant Sundays. On the occasion referred
to, after rising to a dizzy height above
Gratz, he is said to have slashed the silk
| Of the balloon and thrown himself cut Of
his car during the descent. This was done
| in view of a large multitude. His limbs
were broken, and he was so badly injured
that recovery was deemed improbable
! Upon investigation it was discovered that
Prof Meright had deliberately planned
10 kill himself in this sensational manner