La Junta tribune., 1908-08-01
PECULIAR ACCIDENTS.
The "irony Of Life" illustrated In
Stories of Falls.


Stories of Falls.
The "irony of life was strikinsiy
Illustrated recently in the news of
rustic who slipped from six barred
gate and broke his neck and OF an
Italian aeronGut who fell 1000 feet
with his collapsed balloon with no
worse result than n sprained ankle.
A Frenchwoman. Nine. More. aud
her daughter. while climbing in the
Alps. near Zermatt. fell a distance OF
100 feet. not much less than n quar-
ter of n mile. and, although the mother
was killed on the spot her daughter
escaped with few bruises. Mr..
Whynper. the famous mouut:iineer.
had Il similarly miraculous deliverance
from what seemed to he certain death
when scaling the Mattcrhoru. Losing
his footing, lie fell from rock to rock
to the bottom Of precipitous gully,
100 yards In depth. only to recover his
feet with no worse damage than
badly cut head. And NJ. Parvilc,
French writer, tells the story OF an
East Indian living in the island OF
Oghin who fell over precipice l.OoO
feet deep with no more serious con
sequence than good shaking. his fall
being broken by the dense vegetation
which grew ut the foot OF the cliI.
While climbing waterworks tower
24o feet high In Chicago steep'e-
jack dislod.cd IA loose stone and WAS
prccipitated TO the ground FROM
height OF 10 feet, fortunately strik-
Ing telegraph wires forty feet above
the street and thus breaking his fall.
The spectators saspcd with horror as
they saw the man drop swiftly to de-
struction. a rush WIS made to pick
up his shattered remains only to dis
cover that he was practically un-
harmed. Not n bone was broken. and
n week later he was walking about us
If nothing had happened.
More remarkable and indeed al
most incredible was the experience of
Charles Woolcot when he was making
a parachute descent in Venezuela. At
a height OF 1000 feet Woolcot dung
himself on his balloon into space.
when, to the horror OF the thousands
OF onlOOkers. the parachute failed to
open. The man dropped like stone
with terrible speed until. when about
200 feet from the earth. the parachute
iew open ana nt'once collapsed. He
was dashed to the ground, his right
thigh and hip were broken. both ankles
and knees were badly crushed. and his
spinal column was dislocated. and yet.
after year spent In hospital. Wooicot
was restored to sonndness OF limb aft
er surely the most terrible adventure
of which any man has lived to tell the
story.
But II is In the history of ballooning
that one encounters the most remark
able cases OF sensational drops from
the clouds. When Mr.. Wise. n famous
aeronaut OF the early nineteenth cen
tury. was once making an ascent his
balloon exploded at an altitude OF 3D.
600 feet and began to drop swiftly to
the earth. more than couple Of
miles below. "The descent ut first was
rapid" MIR. Wise writes. 'and accom-
panied by fearful moaning noise
caused by air rushing Trough the net
work and the gas escaping from above.
In another moment felt u slight shock.
and. looking up to see what caused 1t.
! discovered that the balloon was can't
ing over. being nicely doubled In. the
lower half into the upper
The balloon had. In fact. formed IT.
self Into n parachute and. osciflating
wildly. continued Its descent until 1t
struck the earth violently. throwing
the aeronaut ten yards out OF the car.
''The car had turned bottom upward.
and there | stool" says Mr.. Wise.
''congratulating myself and the per-
spiration rolling down my forehead In
profusion.'-St Louis Post Dispatch.