Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-04-22
PECULIAR ACCIDENTS.
The "lrony of Life" Illustrated lh
 Stories of Falls.

The irony or Lno iHuStfSteo tn
 Stories of Falls.
 The "irony of life" was strikingly, Illustrated recently in the news of a rustic who slipped from six barred gate and broke his neck and of an Italian aeronaut who fell 1000 feet with his collapsed balloon with no worse result than sprained ankle.
 A Frenchwoman. Mime. Morel. and her daughter, while climbing in the Alps, near Zermatt. fell distance of 1,200 feet. not much less than a quar- ter of mile. and, although the mother was killed on the spot, her daughter escaped with few bruises. Mir. Whymper. the famous mountaineer. had similarly miraculous deliverance from what seemed to be certain death when scaling the Matterhorn. Losing his footing, he fell from rock to rock 10 the bottom of precipitous gully, 100 yards in depth, only to recover his feet with no worse damage than a badly cut head. And NJ. Parville, a. French writer. tells the story of an East Indian living in the island Of 0ghin who fell over q precipice 1000 feet deep with no more serious con sequence than a good shaking. bis fall being broken by the dense vegetation which grew at the foot of the cliff.
 While climbing a waterworks tower 240 feet high in Chicago a steeple- jack dislodged loose stone and was precipitated to the ground from Leight of 175 feet fortunately strik- ing telegraph wires forty feet above the street and thus breaking his fall. The spectators gasped with horror as they saw the man drop swiftly to de struction. A rush was made to pick up his shattered remains only to dis cover that he was practically un1 harmed. Not bone was broken, and a week later he was walking about as if nothing had happened.
 More remarkable and indeed al- most incredible was the experience of Charles Woolcot when he was making s parachute descent in Venezuela. At height of 5000 feet woolcot flung himself Of his balloon into space. when. 10 the horror of the thousands of onlookers. the parachute failed to open. The man dropped like a stone with terrible speed until, when about 200 feet from the earth. the parachute flew open and at 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 a year spent in hospital. woolcot was restored to soundness of limb aft CT surely the most terrible sdyenturs of which any man has lived 10 tell the story.
 But 1t is in the history of ballooning that one encounters the most remark able cases of sensational drops from the clouds. When Mr. Wise. a famous aeronaut of the carly nineteenth cen tuTy. was once making an ascent his balloon exploded st an altitude of I5.- Oo0 feet and began to drop swiftly to the earth. more than a couple or miles below. The descrnt at frst wss rapid" Mir Wise writes. -a1d accom- panied by a fearful moaning nciss caused by air rushing through the net work and tbc gas escaping from above. In another moment felt slight shock. ! and. i0oking up to see what caused q. { | discerered that the balloon was can't ! ing oter. teing uieely doubled in. ths loWer half iEfo tke upper.~
 The hzIIooa had. in fact. formed c. | seif into q pzrzchuie and. oscillatinr wildly. egntinued iss descent untA h f struck the esrsh violently. thrOvfng the ae7oaast ten yanls out Of the car. ssTTss car Lad turned lotion upward and Here ktnd- ssys Mr Whse- sfeaux-atrssffn- ri1se,f ard the ger srirs,i1a reEis- deEn uv forsbesa is rrsfusaan.- --St- Icais Post Dispafch-