Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-11-20

| tights under my street clothes as
usual, but when l saw how the wind
blew 1 had no notion of attempting to
use the parachute. In fact, ] was as
cending under compulsion. and had no
! clear idea how l should get down. I
wanted to get away from that crowd.
l actually had been afraid they would
| kill me IL 1 failed to go up. The howl
| ing was something frightful.
Goodbye, you unfeeling animals"
l shouted. "Unless this balloon bursts
| An upturned sea of swarthy faces was
| watching for me to descend.
However, 1 had soon left them all
| behind. Now that l was aloft, borne
on the wings of the mighty air current
l did not feel the wind at all. The bal
| loon moved with It, Not breath
seemed to stir. 1t was only by look
| ing down at the earth that saw how
rapidly | was travelling onward, over
| river, wide spruce forests and scat
| tered clearings. l knew the story of
La Mountain and his balloon, and had
| n horror of being carried off into the
| Canadian wilderness l hoped that In
| the course of an hour or two the wind
might fall, or the direction of the air
| current change
The balloon continued to go steadily
forward, however in northerly
course until the little clearings and
| cabins below grew few and far be-
| tween.
L must have travelled nearly $50
miles when l saw q large lake, or
| rather a group OF three or four lakes,
come into view on the horizon. Di-
rectly the black of the spruce woods
had begun to fade into the pale gray
of messy bogs Of tamarack and the
| purple hue of caribou barrens. l
could not see clearing or sign of hui
man habitation anywhere. The crowd
which 1 had left behind was bad
enough, but the uneSplored wilderness
| OF lake and swamp ahead OF me be-
| gan to have an aspect even more grim
and terrifying. Moreover, I desired,
If possible, to save my balloon. To de-
scend in a gale is always perilous, but
| there seemed no help for it. 1 dared
not try the parachute, and so finally l
pulled open the gas valve. The bal
loon soon began to approach the gray
| swamps that stretched away to the
| lakes ahead.
All the time I was flying as fast as
horse could run; and as l sank lower
l perceived that l was likely to do
some rough trailing"
When L came within 300 or 400 feet
of the ground l threw out a strong
| grapnel and line, which swung clear
| for some minutes, then began to brush
| the tall tree tops and catch in them.
By good luck-of which l had had
! little enough thus far that day-these
! slight bitches greatly diminished the
speed of the balloon, and the grapnel
| soon catching stronger hold, basket,
| balloon and all came down with a sud
| den hard founce in a thicket of low,
| shrub-like frs, bordering small bay
| on one of the lakes-and there, hold
| ing fast, swayed up and down.
l was pitched out of the basket into
mud and water, but jumped to my feet
and started to run back among the
thick frs to secure the anchorage when
l became suddenly aware that l was
not alone.
A loud squawkinG and squalling
arose all about me. l had come down
in swamp where wild geese Were on
their nests. L was actually treading
on them and on their great white eggs
before 1 saw them. Every fir bush,
with its widespread boughs. appeared
to have a nest under it.
The outcry that all these geese set
up was something deafening. They
rose up, tapping their wings, Kissing
| and sQualling, and at once from all
sides, from the thickets and from the
pond, there came rushing. flying, skim
ming over the frs whole focks of the
biggest and most savage gray ganders
L ever set eyes on. They dashed at me,
at the balloon, at the parachute, and
at the basket, and bit like bulldogs,
and the blows from their long, hard
wings were like blows from fail.
Before 1 could make shift to defend
myself with my knife or balloon hook
they had hold of me by my clothing,
| ny MY legs, ny my nalr even, tug
ging, yelling and thrashing me. One
pinched my cheek so that the blood
flowed. Their wings pounded my
head like clubs. 1 lodged this way
and that, and laying about me with
the staff o. my hook, knocked down
Sanders right and left, but still they
came.
1 lost a moment in foolish effort to
get my revolver from the wicker lock-
er in the basket, and was well nigh
overborne. If once they had beaten
me down they would have killed me,
beyond doubt, but l now began jump
ing from side to side among the frs
lodging and striking with the hook.
These tactics confused the ganders,
for IN their mad fury they flow blind
ly against each other. wus con-
stantly stumbling into more nests, but