The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1900-11-30

the Rev. j. NJ. Bacon tC
a London Daily Mai representative,
referring to n recent balloon voyage
from Newbury, which ended at Saver
make.
1.-THE drenching which you antici
pated came n few minutes after we
began TO see Newbury skidding away
below us. Directly | had finished sig
mailing to our friends at Newbury gas
works / saw Hungerford looming in
the distance, and at once began n mes
age-'Bobs is coming'-as arranged.
Before that message was half
finished we found ourselves I'm the
midst Of terrific hailstorm, which
filed the paraphernalia inside the car.
For the next half hour the scene
was beyond description. Imagine
yourself 2000 feet up In the air with a
dense London fog all around Through
this fog imagine score Of snake-llkc
lightning forks flashing past - all
apparently aimed from an Invisible
battery of artillery somewhere above
the dense gas bag which blottcd out
all chance of looking upward. With
each flash came the report Of n thun-
derclap.
How soon, we thought, would n bet
ter aimed discharge hit the face OF the
big balloon and send us all like n peb.
BILE from a catapault back 10 earth? ?
Fully ten minutes after entering the
thundercloud not word was spoken
by the occupants Of the car, the sur
roundings being too awesome for con
versation.
"Mr. Spencer, the acronaut finally
broke silence. Wed better get down
out OF this he said. 1t was the first
intimation from official expert sources
that our unspoken fears were sclcntili-
cally warranted
"'Cannot we get above that cloudT
said Admiral Frcmantlc, who. | must
confess, seemed To be enjoying the OK.
citement more than any one else. As
he spoke a storm Of fiery ribbons shiv-
cred around us. Mr.. Spenccr's judg
ment, however, was against attempt
ing TO penetrate further upward. We
Will be lucky If we can drop before
passing over Savcrnake Forest he
said, opeiny the valve.
with the abandonment OF the trip
of course all idea of further signaling
TO earth was out of the question. In
deed, IL was more than doubtful to us
whether anybody had even seen us af.
ter we left Newbury gas works The
only postcard we dropped at Hunger
ford appears to have been found, and
the only bomb we exploded seems To
have been unnoticed, except by cur
friends who saw us off. However,
having decided TO stop, II became a
question of finding favorable spot.
Right In our track was Savernnkc
Forest. about two mill wide and ex-
right and left. Fortunately for us,
Mr.. Spencer discovered n clearing
about 100 yards in circumference. into
which we dropped with scarcely n
mlshap
"'How did you manage to miss that
lightning? was the first salute we got
from the countrymcn who rushed TO
meet us. when we saw you in the
midst of it IL looked as If nothing
could save you. You were just framed
in lightning
'Mr. Pcrcival Spencer, one OF the
most experienced aeronauts in Eng
land, declared that never had he been
through such an ordeal. He has fire.
quently ascended in thunderstorms
and seen lightning playing around the
balloon, but the terrifying experience
of Friday surpassed anything he had
seen"
Mr.. Bacon is by no means dishcart-
ened at the result. I'VE Will try
again." he said, and his daughter. Miss
Bacon, who had fearful experience
in n balloon trip last November, de.
clared that next time she Will go, too.