The Minneapolis journal., 1906-10-28
I'M JOURNAL JUNIOR ,rsorA SUNDAY 1906


Assiduous cultivation Of the little Frenchman soon
from the aeronaut promise to take Paul along
his the day Of fete until time
arrived the two nseparable. Behind walls,
the contiguous to the botanical gardens the
Empress Of Night moored For several days prior
to the ascension Estrange and his assistant spent
hours splicing tightening valves, sewing sand
bags painting the car and otherwise preparing the bal
loon for its aerial voyage Arrangements made to
initiate the bag from the nearest gas main and the
tachment. The balloon advertised to ascend at s.
pm and fully hour before that time the public domain
and streets adjacent were black with holiday making
crowd ..-.-,. .. -.-
But the Frenchman not happy; the gas bad,
and the balloon showed no disposition to soar. " All,
cie exclaimed the little in despair "Zees gaas
ees valr poor Eet ees not sutssen re quate
execrable.'' - ..-...
For hours the professor and his assistant had
attempted to initiate the balloon to satisfactory pitch
O'Clock the big bag swayed in the air like drunken
man. it's dropsica folds, which refused to fill out remind
Paul of huge pair of misft Turkish trousers Driven
almost crazy by the demands Of the mob, which, unlike
American crowd, disposed to wrathy at the
delay, the Frenchman jumped box, and, in his
broken English explained that he quite ready and
willing to Eli his part of the contract but unexpected
" confronted with inferior quality of gas that it
threatened to defeat the exhibition entirely. -
An hour later, the incessant chatting of the specta-
worried the that against his better ud
ment he determined to cut loose and make the ascension
Motoning Paul into the he sprung lightly the
side and instructed the park attendants to slip the main
cable. ~ =: :.zz@sz..-. -<*.t ~
s The Empress Of Night slowly to the height Of
about fifty feet and then, deliberately suking in the
air, refused to- inch more ' ALL tees as ex'
pected the professor and pulling the escape
valve the balloon descended amid the eers of the colo
nia whose qups his nearly drove the French
frantic. Excited and angry he order Paul to jump
out in few had detached the from the
rope network above Then with graceful bow to the
impatient spectators the daring aeronaut umped into
the netting Of the balloon mooned the to let and
minute had shot high above the heads Of the now
breathless colonals. ~ - -'::~r -
Another minute the crowd remained silent, then arose
burst of cheering which spontaneous as 1t was
heartfelt for everyone recognized the ntrepdty OF the
response to this recognition, from his perllous
perch above, LEsrange to wave his cap three
times passed beyond the direct vision Of the
excited Watchers who specuated freely his chances
for descending in safety. ..-~. -: .<..:1 =.
Drifting SOUTH the balloon lost it's buoyancy and fen
rapidly Over Pitt street the bag swayed unpleasanty
close to stack Of chimneys and dropped again in
erratc plunges then took sudden dash over George
street. humping vciously against hotel building where,
by chance stood at an open window holding a
lighted candle In second the escaping had ignlted,
an explosion followed, and poor Esrange thrown
on the glass court below where he picked
up later with broken leg and several
fractured ribs burns memento OF his
brave but foolhardy experiment AS for Paul. this brief
experience quite enough to dampen his ardOr Tor
aeronautics the little Frenchman only shrugged his
shoulders when someone asked him if he would make
another ascension he answered. Tomorrow today eet
I vas able to pull rrope!'' ~. -,
!. ~ -zsIs: Z@., ITO Be Continued) ..>