Show ING FLIGHT T OF A people of chicago saw an aeronaut courting death while bac floated half a eife above the city chicago dec 14 with the daring of a man who faces death for the mere excitement of it horace B wild an electrician of chicago yesterday tor time in his life made a i yn an airship he soared to a ot feet above the ground after a series of thrilling experiences he returned to the earth safely arce miles from where he started on bis trip in a machine which never had been tested before his flight was over grand crossing and was witnessed by hundreds of spectators the trip through the aar at the height of a half a mile was made un wilda greatest peril waie danger of losing his hold on me machine on account of the cold twice hla numb fingers slipped from heir grasp jot the framo of the ship and twice ha caught himself by hooking his a groove in the cross beams the trip was made atter several ati covering a period of three when tho sailed away the crowds cheece d and wild waved his hand gleefully for a time all went well the dirig ables machine moving to the south then the engine operating the propeller stopped because the supply of gasoline was exhausted with ahat came to the airship man the realization that he was going higher and higher and bad no means of propelling me ship in the direction of the earth wild in a frantic endeavor to escape destruction climbed into the network of the gas ailed bag aboe him and holding on with the lingers of one hand almost frozen with his teeth unfastened the cord that held the escape valve permitting the gas to escape in sufficient quantities to allow af his floating to iho ground the pulling down of the airship by israll rope was accomplished by two men an a a boy with tho greatest difficulty and at great personal risk for several parts of the machinery became detached falling to tha ground so lightened the balloon that it struggled with renewed energy to escape into the clouds it it had escaped from the rescuers wilds death would have been certain as he would have been carried into the lake |