The Washington times., 1908-04-19
By RALPH A. COLLINS.
e, this is great"

bg JoNtr l4llS - great.
This brief utterance by Lieutenant
Selfridge was the first word spoken as
we shot rapidly upward. II was fol-
lev ed Immediately by calculations in
similar vein by the others In the bas-
ket. Lieutenant Lahm. the tried and
experienced aeronaut. was as enthusiast
tic as his three novices. and seemed
TO catch the contagion OF our enthus-
iasm.
This is great" was never more &C
curately expressive. 1t is great. finely
celebrating, and nothing more.
caught the buoyancy and freedom Of
the balloon immedist ely. 1t seemed Just
as natural to float thousands Of feet in
the air as TO sit down in the press
room at the War Department and tell
a yarn or 10 spring some welI-tried joke
with new fourishes. All those expected
sensations were only conspicuous by
their absence.
BallooEing is the finest sport extant
ard for the rest of my life / am q con-
vert. Nothing was farther from my
mind, and hat Of Captain Van Horn
and Lieutenant Sellridge, than any
thought Of danger. Such a thing as
jeopardy OF life or limb seemed impos-
sible in the peaceful atmosphere of the
upper world
How the Earth Looked.
Looking down upon the earth, the
city, with man, beast. locomotive, and
electric car hUrrylng about, and listen
ing to the perfect babel Of sound, it
seemed as though the whole world and
every place on IL were more unsafe
than the six by four basket.
The cool breeze brushed gently BY.
and the balloon with the basket sus-
pended was apparently the only stiIl
object in the universe. Everything else
seemed commotiOn. Even the clouds
moved, and the guide rope swayed
gently below US, but the balloon basket
was the acme of security. There was
no perceptible motion. Although We
knew the balloon was moving, not one
Of the FIVE senses could detect that mo-
ton. The alert occupants o. the bas-
ket. men with tried and practiced per-
Ception. with that instinct to detect the
barely perceptible, were at a loss to
find any traces Of motion in the bal
loon.
We looked At the Instruments. the
needles Of which registered our height
and progress forward, and up and
down, the hour and even the minute.
They told US just how We were moving,
but otherwise we would not have
known. Miles Of city and country were
passing under us, and it seemed most
natural that il should do so.
We commented on II, talked about II
picked out the points Of interest. IN rs
high spirits as schOoIboys on a high
building for the first time.
Percled On sfTac
conversing, and discovering new points
Of interest, there was no feeling but
that Of the keenest enjoyment We con-
fessed 10 each other that to 20 on a.
high building or narrow ledge would
make us dizzy ana we would retreat
and that to so suddenly up or down in
an elevator would give us a queer,
nervous SILVER, yet we sat on the side
Of the basket with our backs comfort
ably settled against the net ropes. feel
ing only eXhilaration and enthusiasm.
Sure Cure for Nerves.
Just as soon as the general public
shall have had experience in a balloon.
Just that soon will the race become &C
customed to aerial transit. There was
never a thought of work or worry IN
that fight to Baltimore. A series Of
DdllDon AIlpS Wou4A most dSSuTeQlN cure
the most pronounced case of nerves.
The most striking feature of a ball
loon trip is the distinctness OF sound
from the earth. over a big city there
is n perfect babel, and every sound is
in itself distinct. No human being who
has lived in a city can understand the
distance and distinctness with which
sound will carry. When we were in the
rural districts and shouted down to the
farmers they could hear and answered.
Noise suppressing societies do not grasp
the gigantic proportions OF what they
are trying to subdue. and can at best
have but a faint idea Of the many
shril noises existing upon the earth In
the city the sounds conflict and one
browns the other, but not so when you
are up where each separate wave
makes a distinct impression. and is not
detected by buildings and the like
u was not cold even at a height Of
TO00 feet Only near the earth was the
~ rhflIrr before 81 ring har-i0c haor1