The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-07-28
DRAGGEDOVER EARTH
AERoNAUT PHILLIPS NARROW ES-
CAPE FROM DEATH.
ASCENSION AGAIN FAILED.
ESCAPING GAS CAUSED DESCENT
OF BIG BLACK BALLOON.

Another Exhibition of III Luck That
Attends Public Balloon Ascen-
sions at the Standardization Had
Risen "A Hundred Feet when 1t he
gan to FaII-AerOnaut Dragged
Across the Ground Into n Barbcd
Wire Fence and Fingers on One
Hand Badly Torn-Parnchute Re-
leased just in Time TO Prevent
More Serious Reconsideration An
chOred and Captured "A Hundred
Yards Away.
An unchanging fatality seems to at
tend the efforts of the management of
the Casino at Thunderbolt To. have
given a public balloon ascension at
that place Half a dozen times it has
been tried and just as often failure
has followed. The effort of yesterday
narrowly escaped being accompanied
by serious and perhaps fatal conse-
quences.
After the successful trial trip that r. NJ.
Phillips, the aeronaut last engaged by
the Casino management, made on last
Wednesday, the hopes of the promo
tiers of the entertainment rose high
as high as they had brought them
selves to believe the balloon would
rise on yesterday, but these hopes were
again doomed to disappointment.
There is no doubt that Phillips is
as competent an aeronaut as could
have been secured and every precau-
tion-even to the preliminary ascen-
sion, had been taken to assure the
success of yesterdays attempt.
The trolley company's officers had
no lingering doubt about it and the
Morning News of yesterday carried
this glowing advertisement:
Ready for business is that big black
balloon. Wednesdays perfect ascen-
sion settled it beyond doubt, and this
afternoon Prof. Phillips viii make the
ascension of his life. Worth waiting
for. Daring trapeze acts in mid air
200 feet above the net of earth and
water. Then the great parachute jump.
The sudden drop from the balloon, the
parachute opens, spreading out its
folds and bearing up the professor,
landing him gently on the marsh or
in the river. It's a wonderful exhibit
ton. Go and see it, Take the little
ones; they'll enjoy ih''
Delayed by Rain.
The rain that came in the after
noon delayed the performance and it
was not until after o'clock that the
preliminary preparations attending the
imitation of the big black balloon"
We're begun. Il WIS getting on to-
wards when the balloon was ready
for its trip, and Aeronaut Phillips got
a tight hold on the rings that dangled
from his parachute and gave the sig
nal to let go.
The men holding the ropes released
them, and the balloon, freed from its
mooring started swiftly and steadily
upwards, moving at the same time in
a northeasterly direction across the
Casino grounds. The band began to
play and the crowd to cheer, while the
aeronaut did some acrobatic stunts ON
the flying rings.
The balloon had assembled perhaps 100
feet when it began to be perceived that
something was wrong, for it
ceased its steady fight and
wobbled uncertainty in the air A
moment more, and it began to descend
towards the earth. Half a minute
and it had landed and, urged by the
stiff breeze that was blowing at the
time, was dragging the aeronaut and
his parachute over the ground.
Dragged Into the Fence.
Before Phillips could pull the cord
that released his parachute from the
balloon, he had been dragged into a
barbed wire fence and his right hand
painfully torn and gashed by the wires
sharp points. Fortunately for himself
contact with the fence and the re-
lease of the parachute were practical
ly contemporaneous, and the aeronaut
escaped the much more serious inju-
ries he would otherwise have suffered.
The balloon ceased its flight a hun
bred yards from the place of its first
contact with the earth. and was cap
tured without difficulty. 1t was car
ried back to the Casino and another
effort viii probably be made to have
an ascension.
An undiscovered hole in the canvas
was responsible for the failure of the
balloon to rise. Through this the gas
escaped as soon as the ascension
began and the result was inevitable.
1t would seem to be by a special mer-
cy that tho result was not fatal, and
that what was advertised as prof.
Phillips ascension of his life" was not
ff l. L