The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-09-28
FIRST PARACHUTE JUMP.
START or 4 SPORT WHICH HAS
 NOW BECOME COMMON.


 Make tho Jum p-The Feat More Per-
 iIous in Appearance Than tn Reality
 Human Cannon Balls and Other
 Variations.
 The parachute jumper is a recent < product in the profession of ballooning The first parachute jumper was Sam
 Baldwin, now successful manufac- ' turer of balloons. He, his brother and < Professor Van Tassel, all three gas bal N loon men, happened to meet in Los Angeles hotel in the summer of 1887.
 Each had hard luck story to tell and < sit was unanimously agreed that the
 business had gone to the dogs, As a
 means of resuscitating it. Baldwin sug-
 gested the parachute leap. The others $ did not believe it possible for a man to
 make the jump and live. None of them
 was willing to make the experiment, so
 a bag of sand was used. The balloon
 was sent up with a long string att
 tached to the parachute rope When
 the bag has risen three quarters of a
 mile the cord was pulled and the chute
 cut loose. It dropped like log for one E hundred feet, then opened and came
 slowly down to the earth.
 S8S Repeated experiments convinced the 'striO that 1t was a safe trick with a man Mn place of the bag of sand. Van Tas- sS&el then went to San Francisco to in- Atervtew the newspapers and get them 40 send reporters to Los Angeles, but while he was away the impatient Bald twins experimented themselves and < Sam made the first jump in history
 eafely and easily.
 slS The Baldwins were quick to realize $tl1e money value of being first in the
 AA1d, and they started east to intro < dlce the sport there. Greatly incensed Van Tassel broke wlth them and get
 tilig an outfit began making ascents Himself.
 The new act leaped into popular fa-
 Wor at once. The daring of the perfor- < nance and the seeming fact that it was more than an equal chance that the
 Aenonaut would be dashed to pieces drew crowds wherever the leap was ad
 vertisedI to take place. The man who
 rode the bag" could command almost any price he asked. For some time the
 three balloonists had the field to them
 selves. Most of the other aeronauts
 were afraid of it. With four assistants made tour around the world, In a
 year and half they netted one hun
 dred thousand dollars in cash.
 S With the advent of other riders of
 the bag" prices began to drop. From Soile thousand dollars that was once paid for Fourth of July performances lHt the big resorts, prices went steadily 5l0wnWard, until two hundred and fifty dollars was reached Still more re- icriiIts came, and nowadays the ruling Aprice is from twenty-five to forty dol lats. No one has ever compiled an ac- sclrate list of the number of men who dApend upon the parachute jumping as a means of livelihood, but estimates EfAnge from three to five hundred. sa 5 The public craze for novelty, com with the desire to excel, caused a number Of innovations First came the nun and a woman, then later the dog |W6S added. First the man and woman rode on the same bar. Later they had serarate parachutes tied tn the same bar. Then came the man riding a bi- 26ycle in midair. When he left the | lff0iifid he was pedalling at great |rafe, This he kept up as long as he 9sWae In sight It looked very risky, but | it wasn't.
 N Latter came the man who fired him. self out of a cannon in midair. This | |Was spectacular and taking, but a great deal of fake. The folded chute was first placed inside big tube of tin | mounted on stanchions and carriage of | the same fiinnsy material, painted black 10 resemble iron. Then the performer | IcraWled in. He had concealed in the | hraAst of his ''leotard," the half coat l iiged by all tumblers and trapeze ar tfete a pistol, provided with blank cart ridges. The balloon was released in the ordinary manner and when it reached a proper height the aeronaut 6xploded his cartridge, and "the human cannon ball' dropped into view.
 Down in an Indiana town an aero nattt with gas balloon successfully made an ascension with a big farm wagon attached. To add to the real iSfi1, the performer sat on the front eeAt and piled long whip. Then came fhe gang chute Four men, each with aNlittle chute of his own, went up with 4 balloon. A big bar like a whiff1etree was attached to the balloon. To this the chhtes were tied in a row. One by one they dropped safely to the earth. z BaboOns roosters, cats and other do- 1ilHHtic animals have been among those liarnessed to little parachutes and set free to ride down to earth. Others have tagen pigeons, ducks doves and other good fiiers and let them loose in niidair. Advertising matter was set adrift in the same manner.
 After mere half dozen short swings to and fro the ascent is almost directly upward. The man who is quitting the sartfl is, curiously enough, the only one who doesn't feel that he is doing any Ehing of the kind As he sits in his tra- peze and gazes downward there is no sensation of motion or of giddiness. The earth is dropping away from him. He Is sitting still suspended from noth Inn. It is just as though he had sat himself ina high swing and dropped a broad object downward.
 To the novice 1t is a wonderful sight. The earth seems to be saucer-shaped, t11e valleys and hills and rivers mere miniatures in wax that the sun has melted and caused to run. Just be- leath you seems the lowest point, while the horizons appear to be com lg ssup to meet you. You are loohins t, lt the earth through the small end of |