The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-10-11

ola l0n0O railway station q
great place for storytelling in
winter. Ianoo was, for one thing, n
noted rendezvous for commercial trav-
elers who took Trains there for their
drumming tours in the extensive Pow
der Woods district; and for another,
the big base burner that stood In the
middle of the combined waiting and
sitting room was surrounded by
wide nickel railing, which invited the
heels of takers and listeners
One evening my own chair was back
tilted there, when a handsome, care
less looking young man came in,
limping badly, although obviously in
no pain, and sat down silently but
with a friendly glance about him, be-
tween myself and Old Hernly, who
travels for Carratracca Water, and is
everywhere known as the Interroga-
tion Mark.
whats your line?" said Hernly to
the young man.
"Aeronaut, or used to be. Gone out
Of the business now"
"Why?"
SCOT hurt"
"How?'
THAT'S quite a story"
Of course Hernly made him tell it,
and it run thus:
az
When / said 1 was an aeronaut,
should have said a parachute jumper.
1t is a dangerous trade, but a fellow
can make a good deal of money by it
in few years if he doesn't have the
bad luck to get smashed by a fall.
The average life of q parachute jump
er, after he goes into the trade is two
years. They generally get killed by
some sort of carelessness Of their own,
usually some neglect to see that the
parachute will open all right but 1
followed the trade for five years with
out accident.
was always careful to examine all
the fiXings of the bag and the umbrella
myself, and yet in spite of my care
was growing more and more reckless
without fully seeing it. l could not
bear to disappoint the people, and took
too many chances in the way Of
weather, but everything went till last
September. l engaged with the mana
gers of the Chipathee Annual Fair to
make the ascent every day while the
show was going on.
While was in the air the first time
] noticed something didn't like, and
hot nf thO !,
of the town, which extended, with
mighty few clearings, as far as 1
could see. A large forest is one Of our
worst enemies for In descending, if
the wind lands the parachute in a
grove it is sure to catch on the tops
of the trees, and the poor aeronaut,
coming to such a sudden stop, often
loses his seat, and gets caught on a
limb, or goes crashing to the ground.
If by chance he escapes getting his
neck broken, his balloon and para
chute still remain outspread on the
highest branches of the trees, and 70
get them down without tearing takes
time and labor.
For three days I made good trips
for the wind continued to blow from
the south, thus carrying me away
from the woods. Friday morning
stood on the fair grounds, congratulate
ing myself on the fine weather l haC
had so far and hoping it might re
main calm till Saturday night-Satur
day afternoon was to be my last ascen
sion at this place, but now the all
had an unreasonable and suspicious
heat and calm. / was to go up at
o'clock, and at 3 it was pretty clea-
that thunderstorm was near; indeed
it seemed so near that then hoped
would come and go before ascension
time.
The air, however, remained in TIL
same still, brooding, electrical condi
ton, and at 3.55 o'clock, when 1906
or 10000 people were expecting me t
go up, the storm seemed near. If
should not come, the people woul,
think me a rank coward in case di
not 60 up, and the fair manager
might hold back my money; and abov
all, my reputation as q man who coul
be depended on to ascend as advel
tised would suffer.
It wanted three minutes to 4, the ad
vertised hour, when gave my assis
ant the word to let go the guys, an
in the next instant the earth and th
crowd of people began to sink. Up
went! The air was so still and cali
1 seemed to be floating away. 1t is
delightful sensation, and had learne