Year: 1866

In 1852 famous aeronaut advertised


that he would make an ascension from


Oakland, California. 1t was a total nov


city to nine-tenths of those he addressed /;


and the public rushed to see him in


crowds. In the centre of the space from


which the ascent was to be made, the


huge sphere foated, held down to vulgar


earth by dozen ropes grasped by as


many persons selected from among the


bystanders. The navigator among the


heavens had not yet made his appearance,


and the audience were growing inpatient


as manifested by their shouts and curses.


He was propably playing freeze-out poker


with some flush MINER in some adjoining
tavern, la Artemus Ward, and could not


be choked of. In a few minutes more
the 'machine" would have been torn into
threads, when gust of wind arising, the


balloon was suddenly wrenched from the
hands that held it, and rushed like arock-
ct straight towards the clouds. Did we
say wrenched from all Not from all =
A cry of horror rose from the lately turbu-
lent crowd; for there, clinging to slight
wooden cross-piece attached to one of the
cords, was small dark object which every
one pronounced to be human being. A
lad who had been selling papers among
the crowd was one of those who had vol
nnteered to hold the guys, and not being
sufficiently alert, had been carried off with
the balloon. The Spectators were appalled,,
and every observer momentarily expected
to see him drop. But the young adven-
turer had no such idea, and those who had
glasses saw him Chamber up the cord, and
seat himself astride the cross-piece. The
balloon ascending upwards in the glowing
rays of the sun, seemed like speek,
then vanished altogether.


1t would have been difficult Just then
to have insured the life of that boy at any
premium. AS for the involuntary ero-
naut, what must have been his feelings as
he found himself thus severed from the
firm earth to which he had been accustom-
ed. At first his little heart was in his
throat and he seemed to have suddenly
fallen from some vast hight into an abyss
of fathomless air. The world vanished in
simultaneously from sight. The boy had
unfortunately ly wound the cord about his
hand in such manner that it was impos-
sible to get loose at once. Yet knowing
the fate that awaited him, should he fall,
and, by the exertion of an amount of
strength wonderful in one so young, con-
trived to assume the position of compara-
tive safety already noted. There he saw
the wind driven clouds of different strata
rush past him with frightful velocity, and,
looking down, could dimly discern the
landscape, and the ocean with its ships,
spread out as on map. During the af-
ternoon the people of Benicia saw the car
dash by, and little thought of the throb-
bing heart that from that awful eminence
awaited in cold and anxiety the coming
night. The blood began to CONCEAL in the
veins of the little traveller; the act of
breathing grew difficult; his muscles, in
creased to such a fearful tension, were be-
ginning to relax; numbness was seizing
on the fingers that grasped the cord.


{ A few minutes more must evidently
terminate the terrible ride through space.
All at once the rope attached to the valve
was thrown against the boy. He clutch
ed it in his despair as an additional hold
upon life! JOY! The valve opens the
gas escapes the balloon is once more
nearing the earth 1t rushes into the
leafy embrace of grove of trees, and af
ter a violent struggle, rests. When some
rapchman, who had been watching the
descent, reached the spot, he found the
young adventurer seated on the grouud at
the foot of an oak, looking the very pic
ture of astonishment, but none the worse
for his journey, except a few scratches.


We have heard of persons whose hair,
from terror, has turned gray in a single
day. The hair of the lad, ON coming
down, was bright red, but as it was red
before he went up, we do not know that
this was anything remarkable. We meet
him-the boy then, the man now-daily
he looks like any other mortal, and seems
to have forgotten all the circumstances to
which he was indebted for his elevation.