Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1902-07-04

was afreckled-faced, barefooted school
boy in Elwood, Kan. He's a division
superintendent on the Illinois Central
railroad now, and he writes his name
an. r. Emmett, Supt.," but in those
days he was known at the village
school as Mickey Emmett Of course
Michael Robert Emmett would have
been more distingue and deferential,
but in those days he didn't go in much
for style, and with the memory of his
dead fathers fine Irish brogue yet
ringing in his ears, mickey" sounded
all right.
Mickey's widowed mother "kept
cows Nobody called her little estab-
lishment "dairy" except herself, but
she managed to exc out a decent liv-
ing for herself and Mickey, and she
was proud of her ambition to give him
an education and prouder of the fact
that he always was first at his studies.
But when the glorious Fourth of 1872
drew near, Mickey made an eloquent
plea for some fireworks. He wanted
TO show his patriotism. He had an am
bition to make as much noise as the
other boys, and his heart rebelled at
the suggestion that "t'was waste of
money" The widow promised him a
flag.
"Oi'll Civ yez a two-bit flag" said
she, can take yezoover t. the picnic at
Lake Contrary. They's t. be a bal
loon ASCENSION and free foir wurruks,
and it will cost us both only four-bits.' -
Mickey preferred to make bedlam in
his Swp yard, but the widow was bent
on the picnic, and the boy agreed to go.
It wasothe balloon that fascinated
the lad. He was no sooner on the pic
mic grounds than he sought out the
cord-netted bag of yellow, with it's
wicker basket, its anchor and its gap
ing mouth. When the great charcoal
fire was lkindled and the pipe inserted
into the big balloon Mickey was the
busiest lad in the neighborhood. His
good mother watched him and eau
toned him hundred times but he
lowered about the balloon like a bee
at an alfalfa blossom.
Finally, the aeronaut Prof. Winball,
came forth with bath robe flowing
gracefully from his shoulders. His
spangled tights cleaned in the hot
sunlight, and he superintended the in
fiation of his balloon with the careless
confidence of a master. Mickey re-
doubled his efforts to help so great a
man. He helped to lift the sand ba gs
into the car, and as the yellow bulb,
like a monstrous orange, bobbed up
ward in its efforts to be free, the little
Irish boy was beside himself with de-
light. He hoped into the basket a
dozen times. The professor smiled
beamingly upon him and asked:
"Will you go up with me, little
man?"
Mickey glanced at his mother. who
shook her head fiercely, and then he
lodged away again into the crowd
Fifty stout arms were now holding
the guy ropes which confined the bal
loon. The day was perfect. Not a
breath of wind disturbed the air. The
smoke from the little steamer in the
lake curled straight upward in a
widening cone of gray. The trees were
motionless. No cloud specked the blue
sky. the water lay fiat and shining like
a mirror in the~sun.
'Now, my friends" Numbered Prof.
Winball, casting aside his robe and
standing forth respondent in the sum
light, "when / shout: Let go!' YOU
must all loose holds upon the ropes''
The volunteer assistants chorused:
-sAn right" Then there was a wait
while the professor looked after some
carrier pigeons that were to accom-
pany him in the ascent. Somebody
shouted: LET go!' The restraining
ropes were dropped with one accord.
and the balloon, tenantless and like a
rayless planet, rose upward from the
ground.
$50, .<zs ~ 80