Arizona republican., 1901-10-27

made an ascension with a big farm wagon attached. To add to the real ism, the performer sat on the front seat and piled a long whip. Then came the gang chute. Four men. each with d little chute of his own. went up with the balloon. A big bar like whiffle- tree was attached to the balloon. To this the chutes were tied in row. One by one they dropped safely to the earth.
 Balloons. roosters. cats and other do- nestle animals have been among those harnessed to little parachutes and set free to ride down to earth. Others have taken pigeons. ducks. doves and other good fiiers and let them loose in mid air Advertising matter was set adrift in the same manner.
 After d mere half dozen short swings to and fro the ascent is almost directly | upward. The man who is quitting the earth is. curiously enough. the only one who doesn't feel that he Is doing any thing of the kind. As he sits in his ! trapeze and gazes downward there IS | no sensation of motion or giddiness. The earth is dropping away from him. He is sitting still suspended from noth- | ing. It is just as though he had sat himself in a high swing and dropped a broad object downward.
 ! To the novice it is a wonderful sight. The earth seems to be saucer shaped. the valleys and hills and rivers mere miniatures in wax that the sun has melted and caused to run. Just be- meath you seems the lowest point. while the horizons appear to be com ing up to meet you. You are looking at the earth through the small end of your opera glass and some one IS rap l fdlN turning the focusing
 The first two or three seconds after | cutting loose is the time when the only real terror is felt. No matter how many times the parachute Jumper repeats the experience he cannot escape the sensa ton. the complete goneness at the pit of the stomach. When he is ready to let go he takes a long, rull breath | several of them. in fact-and sets his muscles hard. After he does cut loose he dares not breathe. To do so would 1 cause suffocation, a fainting spell. If the chute did not open at all he would never feel the bangs of death. He would have lost all sensibility long be- fore the earth was reached. Sometimes when the chute is slow in unfolding consciousness is lost, but it is onry momentarily.
 As seen from the bar of a parachute all things on the earth are grotesquely put aS ana Citdr cut si- a cameo. The appalling thing Is the treme ndous. awful silence that pre- prevails. A dogs howl or bird song is heard last of all as one ascends. Af- l ter that great silence comes- If there is a strong wind blowing the aeronaut does not know it. It never passes him. He goes with it and just as rapidly as it travels. A match can be struck in midair in the fiercest wind.
 The spectacular part of the ascension is to be found in the acrobatic feats while the outfit is mounting heaven ward. This is nerve racking to the spectator. but not disconcerting to the performer. It must be remembered that he feels no sensation of the rush through the air. To him everything appears stationary. save the earth which is dropping away from him. II he dangles by one hand, he knows though the crowd doesn't. that the wei bandage which secures him by the