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Show FROM CLOTUS TO EARTH. Uaw It Fa.l. la Jump From a ltallot.a Altobd to a Faractiul.. What can a man' sensations bo who jumps from a balloon to the earth trusting trust-ing to a parachute to save him? A Times reporter had a thlk today with Charles II. Smith, an aerooaut and parachute jumper, and asked him how it felt to go up in an air bag and then cut loose and fly back again holding a huge umbrella. "Well, I can't hardly say," was the careless reply. "You seo when I go up 1 don't have any other thought than of getting back tafely, and I have never met with an accident yet, and don't think I ever will, for I am careful that everything is right before 1 go. Of course you can imagine how it feels to go up in a balloon much the eauio as riding up in an elevator. I don't use a basket, but sit in my perch in the parachute para-chute which is suspended underneath the balloon. When I got up high enough I detach the parachute by means of a line in uiy hand which runs np to what we call the parachute knife and all it in necessary to do is to pull this cord and the fall begins, the balloon taking care of itself. Now the seusatious. I go up as high as I can, which varies in differoot altitudes alti-tudes from 2i(l0 to 6000 feet. After getting to the extreme which the balloon bal-loon will carry me, 1 pause a minute to look over the country. The view is so indescribably grand and sublime that no man could oonoeive of adjoc-tives adjoc-tives strong enough to express it. Then, after waiting until 1 can think clearly and feeling certain everything is all right Bd that my landing place will be free from danger, 1 slip out of my perch and hold by my hands, which are so fastened that I could sol fall even if 1 fainted. "When hanging at arm's length, I pull the cord, the knife cuts the parachute para-chute loone aud I am free. "The sensations of the next four seconds are such as no human be- ing uau desoribe. Ihey are such that no jumper no matter what his experience, experi-ence, over gets to like. For the tirst seventy-nve to one hundred feet drops like a canuou ball, the paracuam has not in II a tad and oue wonders won-ders bow far it will go before it does. The seconds seem like hours and all the time you are falling, falling, faster aud a million times faster, and yet there is no sense of fear. Then the parachute catches the air, it begins to till, it is full, then thero is a dead stop for an instant. After that tho descent is slow. A man cotues down as lightly and as gracefully as a feather that is blown by a soft wind. It is a beautiful sight and one never to be forgotten by those who see, and the only shock to those who witness such a jump is in the tirst few seconds when the asronaut detaches de-taches himself from the balloon. |