Year: 1873




mean by coming in his orchard with
their darned old basket, and demand
incredible sums, Califolnias and Pc
rus, as a compensation for damage
done. The passengers, beinf me-
what bumped and tossed, will no
attention to him, and will prese. be
surrounded by able-bodied citizens of
Connecticut, armed with pitchforks,
who will take them to Justice of the
Peace, where they will be charged
with having broken into this gentle
mans enclosure, trampled down his
herbage, and done divers and sundry
things tending to injure the said com.
plainant. Since there are so many of
them, they will probably be called
mob, or a riot, will be committed to
the county Jail, to which they will be
taken in an ox-team, the journey of
summers day.


But suppose them safely of, the sky
above them, the "foam of perilous
seas" below, and the steady air current
whirling them along, the important
question is, where are they to fetch up,
for in this kind of business it is the
last step which is serious, not the first
one. According to the programme
they are to land somewhere between
Cape st. Vincent and North Cape.
That is, they may land in Portugal,
Spain, France, Great Britain, Hol-
land, Denmark or Norway, with all of
which countries we are on friendly
terms, and where they might not in
sist on passports. But a scientist of
eminence, celebrated for his investiga-
tions into the Theory of Hot Corn,
has stated that as the balloon goes up
it gets twist put on it like a billiard
ball and that it goes spinning off at
an angle, suhtended by the plane of
its own meridian, or nearly so, and
proportionate to the earth's parallax at
that particular moment. Therefore,
the balloon will either reach Spitzber-
gen, if the twist is tV the left, or a
point near the Congo River in Africa,
if it is to the right. The notions of
the persons dwelling in this last named
country as to the rights of property
and person are not very distinct to be-
gin with, and the travellers may be
stripped of all they have on. The heat
Of the climate is such that they will
not mind this much, but they will also
be held as slaves and put to hard work
which is not pleasant, and will lower
their opinion of the colored race. They
had better read Capt. Riley's narra-
tive OF his adventures in Africa, and
see what time he had Of 1t.


But this is cakes and gingerbread
to what will happen if they 90 to the
northeast, on the way to the Polar Sea.
Beneath them, they see vast stretches
of halffrozen water, broken by land,
fringed with icebergs, and covered
with eternal snow. No hotels, no
grocery stores, no place where they
can stop and buy even box of sar-
dimes or a can of oysters. 1t is posi-
lively distressing. Provisions are
nearly ont. Home is several miles
away. 1t is getting chilly. The gas
is nearly all exosmosed. They are
coming down nearer and nearer to
earth, whether they will or no. After
having eaten their valises and umbrel-
las, they will probably cast lots as to
who shall be-but let the curtain drop
here.


Then it is very possible that the
balloon may burst while it is high up
in the air, and the contents will run a
lively race to the ocean. While they
are coming down they can amuse them
selves by estimating the height, and
then, multiplying their own height by
the square of their velocity, get fair
idea how hard they will hit. OF
course this will not save their lives,
but it will serve to pass the time.
Down they will go, unnoticed and un.
cared for, unless some ship should
happen to be sailing by and the Cap
tain should make an entry in his log
book to the effect that several things,
supposed to be meteoric stones, fell
near them that day. Every scientific
reader can imagine for himself the
hazards to which one of these great
balloons is exposed. Tranquil as the
bright worlds beyond the clouds may
appear, they are in a state of constant
change. Tiny spheres of matter break
up and dash earthward, but are most
ly consumed by reason of the intense
heat generated by friction with the at
mosphere before they reach the surface
just fancy Ihe consequences if one o
the messengers of wrath, more dan
gerous than the angel with the fiery
sword, were to hit the balloon. l
would blaze in a minute, and the ca
would come tumbling down. Or th
balloon may fail them, anu they ma,
have TO take to the life 1t ia