The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-11-30
BallOOnists Encounter Flock of
Thousand in Air.
Were All WhirIed Along Help
less Before Storm.
MEN LANDED SAFELY.
Occupants of the Cleveland Have
Exciting Time.
Captured Bird Will Be Pre-
served as Trophy.

Armenia, N Y, Nov 30.-The bal
loon Cleveland, with eighty thousand
cubic feet of gas in its envelope and
carrying four New Workers, landed
here last night in the darkness. after
wild trip of seventy eight miles from
Pittsfeld, Mass. to this town, near
Poughkeepsie. It had come through
bliding snowstorms and passing over
the ragged mountains of Column bia
and DutcheSS counties had encOun-
tered whirlwinds in which it was help
less, in one instance being fairly
clutched by the air suction and
dragged down two thousand feet in
about thirty seconds.
The browning adventure of the trip,
in which the Cleveland went flying
along in the snow squalls like huge
SNOWFALL hurled from a giant hand.
was the balloons collision with a flock
of wild geese-a flock numbering near
~ thousand, as far as the aeronauts
were able to observe. The geese,
caught in the binding storms and the
whirlWinds, were as helpless as the
balloon. For an hour the Cleveland
sailed along with the wild, frightened
birds all around it, Pumping against
the gas bag and humping against the
balloon basket. One bird popped into
the basket and was captured. 1t was
held by the aeronauts last night as a
precious trophy and will be given to
a. taxidermist for preservation.
Deafened by the Honling.
Nor was it only the humping of the
big, round bag against the panic
stricken geese, but the four men in
the basket were fairly deafened for
more than an hour by the sharp,
quacking cries OF the brigade of lost
birds. The raucous uproar was nerve
splitting.
n IT.
the pilot with A. Leo Stevens, the vet
eran balloonist, his assistant. 1t was
Taylor's ninth flight Two friends,
Miles NJ. Morris, a Broadway cafe pro-
prietor, and Sydney F. Beckwith of
Garrisons, N. Y, completed the party
made from the aero park in Pittsf1eld
and was made picturesque by the
snowstorm. It showed heavily all day
and when the C1eveland's bag had fill
ed 1t was so thickly covered with snow
that it was too heavy to rise. But in
lull in the storm men were stationed
at the ropes and large quantities of
snow shaken off the bag. Then the
aeronauts got into the basket and sail
ed away in a lazy southerly breeze.
Before they got out of sight the big
bag had whitened anew and taken on
its appearance of a mammoth snow
ball
Caught by Whirlwind.
In passing Mount Riga the adven-
ture of the whirlWind came. The
aeronauts could look from their car
down into the conelike whirl OF snow.
Sand was thrown over in large guam
titles to send the Cleveland to a height
above the clutch of the whirlwind. It
was sent up to an altitude of four
thousand feet and suddenly at that
height found itself caught by another
WhirlWind.
This had a suction so powerful that.
even with ballast going steadily over
the side. the Cleveland was dragged
down for two thousand feet.
ST don't believe" said Mr.. Taylor,
that aeronauts ever beheld such
unique sights as the snow whirlpools
that we saw, and then that great flock
of geese. They came upon us silent
enough. There had come a great whir
wind. The snowfall was so dense that
we could see at that time only few
feet beyond and above the basket.
Feared an Accident.
There came a mighty thump. We
were all startled. The basket had got a
big jar. Stevens said, For heavens
sake, what was that?' fearing some
thing had gone wrong with the gearing
| of the balloon. But he got his answer
soon enough. 1t was a frightful din of
squawking and cackling. The next in
slant two of the birds came humping
against the basket ana were stunned.
We could see them sink, whirling in the
winds, themselves inert.
Again and again we could hear
them bump against the bag, and then
would see them fall beside the basket
and pass downward out of sight. The
meeting with the big flock would have
been a serious encounter for US, see
| ing that it would probably have burst
the balloon had it not been that the
balloon was naturally going with the
wind and the geese themselves were
being hurled along in the same current
! That very greatly lessened the shock
of collision"