The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-06-15
NEAR DEATH IN THE CLOUDS. BaIlOOnist Tells of Perils--Caught By n
 BOugh on Cliff.

For twenty-seven years l have been engaged in making balloon ascensions, parachute jumps and in experimenting with all kinds of paraphernalia for navigating the air, writes James l.. Case in the Chicago Inter-Ocean. l have had all kinds of falls, escapes from drowning and other mishaps, and it is hard to pick out one among them which I would consider the closest call. There are two. however, which are so far out of the ordinary that 1 will leave it to any one to select which was the nearest.
 The first which I will describe occur red in Kentucky, where l happened to be at the time of the first election ot Mckinley. l had been engaged to make a flight at Frankfort at a big gathering and barbecue, and there were thousands of people there Ev- .erything seemed to be favorable to the ascension, and it was without any qualms that I cut loose and the big gas balloon shot up in the air. l was to come down in the parachute, but l had done this hundreds of times be- fore, and there seemed to be nothing to fear. | don't remember exactly how high up I was when I determined to cast loose, but suddenly as I was descending I realized that the air cur rent had taken me In a diagonal direc- ton, and I was making directly for a cliff where there was a heavy growth of timber. It all happened so quickly that can hardly describe it. At any rate, I found myself coming down in an immense tree, and the branches seemed to be fairly bristling.
 I endeavored to get foothold on a branch, so that I could hold myself there utnil help came, but I got tan gled in the parachute, and the next thing I knew a sharp branch penetrat- ed my throat just under the jaw and came right through into my mouth, knocking out two teeth. l was made unconscious almost immediately, and | I must have hung there for an hour and a half before found that the peo- pie were trying to rescue me. It was most difficult place to get to, and, as there were only negroes about, 1t seemed an age before anything was done. I hung there by the throat, be- ing supported more or less by the rig ging of the parachute, which had be- come entangled with the upper branch es of the tree. Finally man was let down from the top of the cliff by means of rope and in a short time found myself disengaged from the branch and hauled up, I was faint from loss of blood, but after a week or so spent in the hospital I managed tc recover.
 In the other escape had I have all ways considered myself virtually a dead man for two hours. Not that the ] life actually left my body but it lay there dormant until restored to actiy- ity by the most heroic measures. Ii they had not been taken I would have expired It was several years ago when I had been engaged to make ar Ascension and parachute jump at She. boygan, Wis. I made the ascension all right, but when I cast loose in the parachute I found I was booked to de. scend into Green Bay, was only 700 or 800 fet from the water, but came down good deal more rapidly than the steam launch that was out after me could get to me. I was In the water about twenty minutes when il finally arrived. It had on board mem. Ibers of the lifesaying crew, who were lexpert in handling men taken from the flake. They used bags of rock salt tc keep up the heart action, and 1t was more than two hours before they got the slightest visible signs of life from me. I recovered from that experience all right. While it may seem com. monplace in view of the hair-raisins episodes in the careers of other aero. nauts, I think it was my closest cal
 from death.