The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1901-08-23
CIRCUMSTANCES combined to
t make the waiting room at the

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 Q
wide nickel railing, which Invited the
heels of takers and listeners.
One evening my own chair was back
tilted there. when handsome, care
less looking young man came In
llmping badly, although obviously In
no pain. and sat down silently, but
with 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 lineT said Hernly to
the young man.
"Aeronaut, or used to hA Gone out
of the business now."
"WhyY"
"Got hurt"
1"HowY"
"Thats quite story
OF course Hernly made him tell II,
and IL run thus:
When I said was an aeronaut,
should have said parachute jumper
II is a dangerous trade. but fellow
can make a good deal OF money by II
IN, few years II he doesn't have the
bad luck to get smashed by n fall.
The average life OF 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
followed the trade for five years with
out accident.
was always careful 10 examine all
the fixings OF the bag and the umbrella
myself, and yet In spite of my care
without fully seeing It, / could not
bear to dlsappoint the people, and took
too many chances I'm the way OF
weather, but everything went till last
September. i 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
Z noticed something / didn't like, and
that was the spread of the forest south
OF the town, which extended. with
mighty few clearings. as far as
could see. A large forest is one of our
worst enemies, for In descending. II
the wind lands the parachute In a
grove, II Is sure to catch on the tops
of the trees, and the poor aeronaut,
coming to such sudden stop, often
loses his seat, and gets caught on n
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 to
get them down without tearing takes
time and labor.
For three days I made good trips,
Tor 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 / had
had so far, and hoping IL might re-
main calm till Saturday nlght-Satur-
day afternoon was TO be my last ascen-
sion at this place but now the air
had an unreasonable and suspicious
heat and calm. / was to go ND at 4
O'Clock, and at 3 IL was pretty clear
that thunderstorm was near; indeed
IL seemed so near that l then hoped IL
would come and go before ascension
time.
The air, however, remained In the
same still, brooding, electrical condi-
tion, and at 3.55 o'clock, when $1,000
or 10000 people were expecting me TO
go up, the storm seemed near. If II
should not come, the people would
think me a rank coward In case | did
not go up, and the fair managers
might hold back my money; and above
all, my reputation as a man who could
be depended on to ascend as adver.
tised would suffer
1t wanted three minutes TO 4, the ad,
vertised hour. when / gave my assist
ant the word TO let go the guys. and
In the next instant the earth and the
crowd OF people began TO sink. Up |
vent The air was so still and calm
i seemed to be floating away 1t is a
delightful sensation. and had learned
to love my balloon and her easy, bird.
like flight.
l rose rapidly. and after gazing
down at the old earth awhile, took ofI
my cap and waved II. Then l per.
formed few simple feats on the ira.
peze bar. when the balloon shot M
into n slight current OF cool air. Al
the the same moment noticed q
movement In the lowering but vague
CLOUD to the north. and was struck
with fear that the storm was about
to burst forth.
I almost concluded to drop then and
there. but was not more than 500 fee
from the earth. and the very sam,
fear OF being taken for n coward which
had sent me up now kept me ascend
ing. At the same time the cool draf
OF air was carrying me toward the for
est at no great speed.
But In a few more seconds OF ascen
was out OF that cool space and going
up through air which had not yet be
gun TO share In any degree the south
ward motion OF the advancing storm
Up went till I had probably reached
1900 feet OF altitude. my usual as
cent. Then the growing cloud i'm TN,
north lifted with wonderful speed ill
Il spread over the sky above me. anC
bright lightning zigzagged down from
the zenith in two divergent streaks