Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-02-28

yet now he knew peculiar Whlrr which he could
feel but could not hear Up and up and up faster still
lost soul doomed to wander endlessly through space
he flew willing suicide alone with God! He lay
limp and quivering Was this death?
Heston passed into state of emconsCiousness but
when he woke the sickness and the terror gone,
and he lay calmly in his armOr of down. The rCh life
giving ozone penetrated his vita potent drug reviv
living him, snatChng him, it seemed, from humiliation.
No longer the silence haunted no the darkness,
loneliness helpessness of his position benumbed him.
Through the Curving dores of his crystal palace and
grave he gazed upon the planets ourneyng directly
into their glorious midst there choose home through
all eternity. An intoxication OF hope and triumph in
spred him. The shame, the sorrow, the defeat, the
guilt of conscience were gone. He seemed to have
sloughed off all mortal anguish and sensibty to pain,
as he laid aside his garments leaving the hauns of
men The majesty of night, the immensely of the firm
ament the glory and perfection of the great Creator OF
it all - never had their realization overwhelmed
him. At times he seemed sublimated, inspired No
longer was he the aCCursed worm of the earth He
with the stars the invisible ether, the potent ego
of divinity, coeval with Nature and the Infinite.
He knew that passing upward at his present stupen-
dous rate he had already reached height beyond that
ever attained by Even this little victory seemed
TO challenge the ages On, on, on He could not
travel fast enough to suit the passion w. What
though the penalty of all death? 1t would not
be the gnoble death he had sought = would be indeed
the scientists, the soldiers the king's His mentor,
far from being remorseless tyrant now appeared in
the light of benefacor He closed his eyes in thank
full ecstacy and slept
When Heston awoke from his slumber it dazzling
sunlight Never before had mortal man witnessed
such dawn Up from the east there shot great floods
of scarlet light = throbbng, quivering, unspeakaby
glorious He seemed to be borne aloft through
ntinitude of flame With difficulty turning his head to
the proper angle he caught sight of the great circular
blot of the EARTH half obscured in anshaped stretches
of purple and gold The whirring shudder beneath him
was three times faster than when he fell asleep.
The resistance of the atmosphere less and less and
his progress slower, though the engines working
to their fullest capacity He scanned the thermometers
outside The containing mercury had burst its
bulb The alcohol in the other had frozen to yellow
sh icCle He turned breathlessly to the barometer.
1t longer gave any record Then last he consulted
the hydrogen thermometer 1t registered 246 degrees
below zero! His flight had been faster even than the
scientists calculations had foretold. He had already
covered more than half his upward Journey
Remembering his promise to his aCcompce in suicide,
he took up the parchment and pencil and began to write
But like who arrives in region hitherto I'M
explored by man. he found much to say, and yet so
little that he could put into words. Line upon line,
in Closely-wrten, terse, and teeming language he
recorded as integiby possible his amazing exper-
fence, wondering if the words would ever reach a
human eye. Often he compelled to rest, for there
barely for the movement OF his arms and
the brightness of the day stung him partial blindness
Often he shielded his lids with the parchment sheets
He felt Calmer now, and wished that he had eaten or
had food that he might be to live live to pro-