Willmar tribune., 1902-07-02
>'~oBY Jorh RAFTER,

July 4, 1872, he
was freckled-faced, barefooted school
boy in Elwood, Kan. He's division
superintendent on the Illinois Central
railroad now, and he writes his name
M. X. 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 eke out 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.
Butwhen 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 rebe1led at
the suggestion that "t'was a waste of
money" The widow promised him a
flag.
"Oi'll Civ yez two-bit flag" said
she, "an' take yez over t. the picnic at
Lake Contrary. They's t. be ball
loon ASCENSION and free foir wurruks,
and it will cost us both only four bits"
Mickey preferred to make bedlam in
his own yard, but the widow was bent
on the picnic, and the boy agreed to 60.
1t was the 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 its
wicker basket, its anchor and it's gap
ing mouth. When the great charcoal
fire was kindled and the pipe inserted
into the big balloon Mickey was the
busiest lad in the neighborhood. His
good mother watched him and call
toned him hundred times. but he
hovered about the balloon like a bee
at an alfalfa blossom.
Finally. the aeronaut. Prof. WinbaN,
came forth with bath robe flowing
gracefully from his shoulders. His
spangled tights cleaned in the hot
sunlight; and he superintended the in
1lation of his balloon with the careless
confidence of a master. Mickey re-
doubled his efforts to help so great
man. He helped to lift the sand bags
into the car, and as the yellow bulb,
like a monstrous orange, bobbed up-
ward in it's 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 fercely, 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
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
q mirror in the sun.
"Now, my friends," thundered Prof.
Winball, casting aside his robe and
standing forth resplendent in the sun
light, "when I shout: Let go!' you
must all loose holds upon the ropes"
The volunteer assistants chorused:
GAIL right" Then there was 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.
Then the round, brown, freckled face
of small boy peeped over the rim of
the basket. A woman screamed and
Tainted, and Mickey Emmett, the small
boy of Elwood, Kan, went sailing to-
ward the zenith alone in slender
basket, swinging by -four taut cords,
with the upward sweeping bulb Of yel-
low silk lifting him beyond the sound
of voices and into the measureless
space where the winds are free and the
world is but a silver-striped ball Of
e green and yellow. S.. ,.S i. 5S...s -,
"When 1 looked over the edge Of that
basket" said uperintend dent Emmett,
telling the story yesterday Il didn't
B ealize that I was going up. For five
Il minutes Or more it seemed to me that