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Show yUP IN A BALLOON. c What a waste of talent, tills sailing of balloons for long-distance record, and what a risk of life, this effort to float off into the wilderness of the north. Hawley and Post, in the America, a rubber balloon, made 1350 miles and narrowly escaped death in the achievement, and now they arc to be banqueted and their names are to go down on the records of the Aero Club of America as heroes. They have given to the world nothing new or helpful; they have simply demonstrated that if two men are foolhardy and well equipped with inflation, they can drift with favorable winds to the wilds of Canada and, being blessed with the kindness of Providence, can live to return to civilization. The whole thing is worse than boys' play because of the element of danger. A dirigible balloon, such as Zeppelin has built, gives promise of proving useful and having scientific value, and, therefore, the experiments experi-ments with that form of air navigation arc interesting and noteworthy; note-worthy; likewise, the aeroplane with its promising prospects of utility, util-ity, but the balloon that goes up to be wafted by the winds, no one knows where, is not much better than the balloons sold to babies on circus days they are toys. |