The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-09-06
MINNESOTA STATE FAIR
EVERY BALLOONIST
MAKES LAST TRIP
WISE ONES QUIT BEFORE THEY
DIE.
Ed Andrews, Boss of State Fair Aerial
Colony, Tells Experiences of Twelve
Years of Balloon Business-Wages
Fall from $500 a Trip to S., and
Many Jump at That. ~

OIL AAOAA vAOO Lily w ~os oaA&A
Many Jump at That
With the possible exception of the
elevator operator, no man has more ups
and down in life than the professional
balloonist, and few balloonists have
presiding genius Of the little balloon
colony camped in the race track oval
at the state fair. Andrews is 3S years
old, has been in the balloon business
twelve years and has had enough of it.
The one-time Emperor Of the Air" is
now content to stay below and tend the
fire for the aeronaut. l..
Ono, I IN not the fellow who is 60
ing up on this contract,' he answered
in response to query yesterday. II we
got another kind of Job now. [ have
to see that the balloon gets up: The
fellow you re all looking at is. Red =
Minneapolis Red who has been max
years. Firing is harder work, but this
is pleasant country to stick in.' s,
Andrews, like all old campaigners,- is
as full Of the lore of his profession as
a nut is off meat. He is a long way
from being, garrulous, however, and it
ditions that he will permit himself to
ballooning. The stiff breeze blowing
across the state fair grounds yesterday
made an ascension impossible during
the afternoon and after casting a
gloomy eye at the Tapping flags on ma
roll Of heavy ne Muslin S that pp1a ted
the balloon, assimilated section Of
dark and fearsome looking "chew-
ing,' and took little trip into the
past.
Ballooning Poorly Paid.
tBallooning isn't what it used to be
and that is one reason I gave it up
that is the going up, part of it.. In
the old days, when I first went into the
business, it was no trouble at all to get
5000 or $3.50 for one trip: We used to
get that even before the 'chute was
all the people. you want to go up for a
fve-case note. I m not saying that
Red goes up as cheap as that, but
there s plenty that will.
"Then I we had all the excitement and
glory of it and I've had long writuAs
in the papers and all that sort of thing.
I used to keep 'em-but that's long
ago. 100. .,o , . ,,. ....o 49,
sons for making man 90 up. He likes
to hear the mob down on the ground
buzzing about him, and he wants to
show how much nerve he's got. It's
the old kid game of doing something
the other fellow 'dasn It. Sometimes
it's, being hard up that gets a fellow
up in the air beneath hot-air bag, and
I we put one or two boys in the business
that way myself. j
81 used to 90 up before there was
such a thing as chute, and all you
could do would be to ride the bag down.
That was good deal more risky than
the 'chute SYSTEM, because there was
no way Of guiding the bag, and you had
to take. what you got in the way Of q
place to light on. -
The First Parachute.
"And then came the first Baldwin
parachutes-and they were holy ter
skirt ropes running down to ring,
like they are now, they were built just
like an umbrella, with a long pole run
ming up thru the middle, just like an
umbrella stick You sat in rope loop
at one end of the pole and the cutoff
was at the other. And when you struck
the earth there was no way of telling
whether that pole was going to hit
you on the head or not. I've been
knocked out more than once by it.
."Dropping. in parachute isn't so
much Of a trick now. You just sit in
the trapeze or the loop-I use loop
give little jerk on the cutoff rope
and there you are sliding down thru
the air. It's a good deal like getting
quick drop in an elevator. There
ism any dead stop-such as many
people think The chute hoods as it
drops; that is, the edges fold under
as it falls so that it sort Of opens half
at time and you are Stacked UP be-
fore you know it.
'The way we rig 'chutes now-with
a hoop inside to help them open-the
drop is hardly more than fifty feet ex-
cept on a windy day, and little pull
ing of the skirt ropes on one side or
the other will send the chute, almost
any direction you want except against
the wind. -. 10.
ers, and that s about the only real dan
ger. The shorter the skirt rope the
quicker the 'chute will open, but the
wider it will swing Red has that
kind of chute, but use one with
long skirt rope because got three ribs
cracked against the side Of an elevator
that way once. '.-
No Safety Continuance Used.
every few balloon people tie them
selves to the outfit nowadays. Some
use Wr1SC Straps, DuC L never ala ana
never felt the need Of one. Of course,
if something had happened-if some Of
the ropes had broken on the Chute
and thrown me to one side I might
have lost my hold. But I never did.
Red doesn It use wrist strap or any
thing. He just hangs on. About the
only trick to the trade is to grab the
side ropes of the trapeze or loop as soon
/ as you have pulled the cutoff rope.
"Of course, some people are killed in
this business, same as any other bust
ness, and when they do get killed they
are awful1y dead. There was Jacob
Hoffman, the fellow who went up here
on windy night five years ago, cut
loose and got long fall onto a pile Of
lumber
eve never could make up our minds
whether the high wind kept the Chute
from opening or whether the skirt
4 ropes pulled thru the muslin. They III
lido that sometimes, especially when the
Chute has been laying away all winter
and has been widowed. The mob cut
that Chute up for souvenirs befare we
could get to it. so we never knew
whether Hoffman was right in thinkino
that the ropes pulled thru. Anyhow,
he was il The hospital all winter.
Hoffman stuck. to the business,
i ! Isl 1o1 o4E ~