The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1905-07-05
MANY THOUSANDS
Continued From FRS. Page,

and the big bag filed rapidly. A
S0-foot parachute was attached to the
balloon by half-inch rope run
through close fitting ring at the top
of the parachute. Across the face of
the little ring knife was fixed to
work at a pull on cord passing down
through the parachute to the trapeze
below.
Twenty men had hold of the mon.
ster, and at 5:45 Managed Lane dedid-
ed that everything was ready. Mile.
st. Clair adjusted the trapeze and
signaled that she was ready.
Attention, everybody" said Mr..
Lane. LET Col"
The big balloon sprang into the air,
and Mile. st. Clair, after half dozen
running steps, was swept into the air
as though she had been a feather.
Up and up scared the huge gravity
scorner, till there was a mile of
space between 1t and the earth. The
wind was very slight, and the balloon
drifted very slowly north, directly
over the main part of the city. When
just about over the Catholic Church,
and fully mile high, the neryy young
woman cut the rope and dropped like
a shot. For three or four hundred
feet she fell radiply. Then the para.
chute opened, and she rode easily and
gracefully down, and dropped as light.
ly as you would step from carriage
coming down on Superintendent T. c.
Miller's lawn on Pike street. A more
successful ascent and drop" could
hardly be imagined.
Mile st, Clair told West virsinian
reporter that this was her ninth sea-
son, and that she had had very few
mishaps, her worst misadventura be.
ing in LIE Pierre, Michigan, when she
struck church steeple in her de.
scent and lost her hold on the trapeze,
sliding some distance to gable. She
sustained broken wrist. Mile. st.
Clair said she began giving exhibit.
tions every year about Decoration
Day and made an average of four as.
tensions week until the first of DC.
tober. She goes ordinarily to height
of 5000 feet. When she "cuts loose
from the balloon a sand bag attached
by rope to the top of the balloon
pulls 1t upside down and allows the
gas to escape. The balloon reaches
the ground almost as soon as the par.
achute.
The drayman, who was supposed
to follow up the balloon Immediately.
was most stupidity late in getting to
1t last evening, with the result that
1t was not brought back till 1850, and
the second ascension was made when
1t was almost dark. Mile. St. Clair
dropped this time when only about
1000 feet up: Her performance
pleased the crowd If anything more
than the first one, since everybody
saw her come down and alight. She
landed in the middle of the street, not
fifty yards from where she went up.
A most unfortunate conclusion to
the eminently satisfactory perform
ance of Mile. st. Clair in this city
was the burning of her balloon about
midnight last night. From the sec
ond ascension the balloon dropped
into some telegraph wires at the cor.
ner of Walnut avenue and Second
street, and lodged there. Mr.. Lane at
tempted to get it down, but was fore
ed to abandon the attempt on account
of darkness. 1t is supposed that the
fire caught from the overcharged
wires during the thunder storm that
came up about twelve o'clock. Mr..
Lane estimated his loss. in the cost Of
the balloon itself and in broken en-