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Show TIFlILSiTIMl Dangers Attendant on Aerial NavigationA Naviga-tionA Desperate Battle For Life. ABALLOONISrSOLOSE CALL, Casting Lots for tbe Eight to Take Part In an Ascension that Ended in . ' a Double Tragedy. nun. All or theiu accepted, arid stooa within the ropes that kept back the crowd of spectators whiio the enormous balloon wan filled with gas. When the inflation had been completed the professor, doubting the buoyancy of his air Bhip, announced that he could take but one companion on the vo-age. Kach of the.roporters insisted on being that one, but the controversy ended with an agreement to match pennies. pen-nies. The contest, by the chances of the coin, soon narrowed down to two men Griniwood, of Tho Evening Journal, nnd Maitland, of Tho Courier, a sheet loug since gathered to its fathers. Maitland had in his pocket an envelope containing his week's salary. Ho pulled it out and cried: "ff rim wood, I'll give you that to let me go tip." "No," was the response. "We'll stick to the agreement. The one who wins shall luske tho trip." The two bright young men didn't know it, but when they laid their pennies on the board at their feet t hey were casting lots for life or death. Grimwood gained the coveted prize the seat iu tbe basket of the balloon by the side of the now impatient aeronaut. Ho jumped aboard, the order was given to cast off the ropes nnd the un-' un-' chained monster bounded upward with a mighty rush and soared northward like a thing of life. What followed? Anticipation, Anticipa-tion, doubt, anxiety, despair, the recovery of a body. As conjectured, tho balloon drifted out over Lake Michigan during a storm, collapsed and fell into the waves. Grimwood'scorpse was founii oil the beach up in the wilds of Michigan, and lumber- HOW PROFESSOR BIGGINS WENT UP. THOSE who go down to the sea in ships face perils of a certain cer-tain nature which they are able to meet aud generally overcome by moans c;f the appliances ap-pliances man has invented for tho purpose of battling with the storm anc waves. But those who invade she air with balloons can safeguard themselves to no appreciable extent. ' Peril attends tho rise from earth, and once above Cbe housetops the aerial craft is at the mercy of every breeze that blows. Danger likewise surrounds the descent, and while accidents are not so numerous as the conditions con-ditions would seem to demand, still it is a fair' statement to characterize as lucky any one who has passed twenty-four hours above the clouds, and then reached terra Qrnia In safety. It was only the other day that the 60,000 inhabitants of Croydon, an English city not far. from London, wore thrown into a paroxysm of excitement and apprehension regarding the fate of Professor Higgins, a local aeronaut. He had prepared a balloon of a capacity of 19,000 cubic feet with a parachute and trapeze attachment. When he gave the signal the ropes were loosed, and the air ship sailed away in the direction direc-tion of Norwood. . Upon reaching an altitude alti-tude of 4,000 feet the parachute became detached de-tached from the net of the balloon, which shot up at a great rate and rapidly disappeared disap-peared in the clouds. This was an emergency emer-gency not included, in the programme, for A MODERN BALLOON WITH PARACHUTE, men discovered fragments of the great air ship in the depths of a pine forest. For a while a dark rumor circulated to the effect that Donaldson, in the hour of danger, had cast the reporter overboard to secure his own safety, but this never went beyond the limits of suspicion, as no one afterward saw or heard of the -unlucky navigator. James Maitland still - wields a vigorous pen on one of the Cbicngo papers, and as he gathers his boys and girls about him in his cosy home thanka'-hvhatever gods may be" that Grimwood refused the envelope on that fateful summer afternoon so long ago. ' '. Will a time ever come when the balloon shall be of value as a means of transportation; transporta-tion; when it can be guided along its destined des-tined course with the reasonable certainty that attaches to the progress of a sailing vessel? Who. can tellf The principle of atmospheric buoyancy was discovered by Roger Bacon in the Thirteanth century. How vague was his groping after the truth may be shown by the fact that he termed the principle "ethereal sir or liquid fire," and wrote: "Tlwro may be made some flying fly-ing instrument, so that a man sitting in the middle of the instrument nd turning some mechauism may put in motion some artificial wings whicb-may beat the air like a flying bird." It was not until 1782, however, that this obscure suggestion of the mediaeval monk took form as an invention. inven-tion. In that year the Montgolflers made the first balloon. Theimprovements since their day have been chiefly in the way of elaboration. The idea; itself has formed the basis for no such progress as that characterizing char-acterizing the history of steam and electricity. elec-tricity. Fred C. Daytok. Future of Electric Railway. Capt. Griffin, in an address before the Franklin institute, says that it is only a matter of time, and iat of short time, when electrical propulsion will replace the horses on the majority of our street railways. It is matter of time, a somewhat some-what longer time, perhaps, when it will be the propelling power on ell our elevated ele-vated roads, for the elevated road possesses pos-sesses ideal conditions for tho application applica-tion of electricity. It is within the bounds of possibility that our steam roads will ' be run with electricity, and this power offers many advantages for the suburban traffic in the vicinity of the large cities. : The possible utilization of hitherto neglected water powers will bo me of tho factors in determining the estonsion of electrical propulsion in this direction. Tho New York elevated roads are anxiously seeking a solution to the problem of how to enlarge their carrying carry-ing capacity without rebuilding or materially ma-terially sltering their superstructures. Electricity offers the best solution. New York Commercial Advertiser. ESCAPE OF THF, PARACHUTE. Higgins had intended to descend within the limits of the field from which he mnde hln departure. The loss of the parachute, and the perilous predicament in which the voyagor was thereby placed, no car being attached to the balloon, naturally aroused the gravest fears In the minds of his friends and relatives. The last glimpse caught of him on the edge of the sky showed that he was hanging by one hand to a pendant rope aud clutching at the mouth of tbe air ship with the other. No one for a moment mo-ment entertained any hope of his escape, and the general relief was accompanied with intense astonishment when late at night a telegram from Tunbridge announced an-nounced that he had landed safely. On his return the professor naturally had a remarkable story to tell. He reached such an altitude that icicles formed on his hair and muBtuche. The slow escape of gas from the balloon finally changed its upward up-ward to a downward progress, and the return re-turn to the lower and warmer strata of the air rovived the unwilling traveler sufficiently suffi-ciently so that he was enabled to make a struggle for life. He lowered himself to the eud of his little trapeze rope, and so hung until his feet touched the earth. lie could not, however, get free until the bol-i bol-i Jt . THE TLCNGE INTO LAM MICHIGAN. loon had dragged him ten yards along the gronnd and rebonnded sixty feet Into the air. At the second descent two pausing laborers rushed forward and held the struggling strug-gling monster down until Higgins disentangled disen-tangled himself. He was half froien aad suffering from severe muscular strain, but otherwise received no injuries. It was in its way one of the most remarkable escapes on record. The adventure oi ProfessorH iggins recalls to the writer an event that occurred nearly liftucn years ago, and in which he narrowly missed being a participant. As oue of th features of a circus ex hi bit inn at Chicago ProfeKsur Donaldson announced an nsuea-sion nsuea-sion and issued invitations to half a dozen reoortem for Ua dairj imiers to ccomnur. . V ' 1 '. ' |