PRESENCE OF MIND.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 3100, 19 September 1899, Page 6

PRESENCE OF MIND.

Wind was bis name j Hiram Wind, biitbe told "The Fun w re-i p6rt«-.r*h»t tb*jr,p»lledJiiin;Hi ior shorty . .^ i'• For a long time," BM.d he, with a halfkpavisn Bm»l«B^''i aidnH^ik* the BbbreriationV hot «*hea'l #a» ifcm-aty-dvd akil to< Jc'to brtll.>ori-' irjg a«, a. burners it kwd, of so/ter, ■ si-ejned as.'if -Pjovj.ji nee. m^ant that I should have, bad that n^roe and no other, ' fefeissor HiWittd/'^a j, added 1 wittr pride, **'$&* name that is bound to 6qar ; t broucb ttaelof t ie*t, realms orspaoe;" , •• Did you ever Iwve. an accident, ?" inquired the reporter. , '« Srveral, bat they have never been the fault of the Wind." : The professor began to A©W «igns of succumbing to the pump. . , "Of course," he admitted hesitatingly, «• a man can't walk the earth ovwy day without bumping against something «ut ef the oidiuaiy occasionally, and ttao nir.is no exoeptioß. I've had experiences that yon might call Barrow escapes—that is you wight* and tht-n -again -you mightn't. It would ccpead. on how you looked at things. Some call 'em narrow a»d some don't. 1 don't myself" It was plain that the professor understood that a good tning was a good thing wheu ho saw it. " : uppuse you narrate ene ror my saUe," suggtsled the reporter, " a»d let me add my testimony to that of your other admirers." •' Tbunks. I dou't care if I do," 1 said the professor, and there was that in the tone which recalled the reporter to m*n'» highest duty to his f> How mas. After which, sitting at a small : tablr. the prsftastr continued : *' I was out >n Indiana about four years ago. ladiaaa is a great state ia the season, and I had made an ascent fer the beatfit of a Sunday school picnic to kiad of »ff»et goiag up on the Suudny beforo f»r a lager bet-r sociable function. Mighty particular pious these Sunday soliwri people ar#, and everytWiag was lovely. My balloon wri a gas balloeu, and she tairly kicked up her hf els while 1 bad her Uthercd, aud when sho got away the t-ecmed iike sbe waa heading rigbt for infinity and waa goiag the limit or bust a ham-string. " I gueas fth« must have gone up a mile ttna a half or two miles when I f*lt somettinj: give way, attd in a minute or twe she btgau to go back the other way— oob fast, you underatanri, but hlow and sure, and in a wsy to mßka you feel mighty uncomfortable, I couldn't tell what the matter was, and after letting her drop to abont half a mile of bottom, I tossed out a little of my ballast. I wu abort on parachutes that day, too, as mine was ©ut of whack. Aud bciag careless I thought I'd tako my oh»aots. About this time I began to wish I hadn't, but I didn't say a w«rd for obvious reasons Whtn I let the ballast out, the balloon rexpouried o»ly a little, and the way she did it convinced me that something serious was the matter By this time I had to throw out some more ballast, ud ifc w»»n'fc » minute bill there wasn't amyIhing loft in tbu ba3k*t besides myself, end about 1 000 feet of r»pe with a grapple on the cad of it." " The balloon had brgun to sink again, and rapidly. And you may gutss that this was a time for a man to do some pretty active thinking if Le expected *«y good results from it, and you may be assured I was calculating- Every instant bow the balloon was gathering vrUcity, the last movement downward having begun ata point about a quarter of a mile from the ground, and I kn«w that la a few seconds 1 was going to be a shapeless mass that couldn't even be photosraphed for a newtpaper unless somethmg bappsned. There was only one thing t« do, sod that was to relieve the balloon of its weight and scad it back up again. The rope and I wore heavy enough to l*saen the w«ight considerably if we should get out, and I proposed to do a great act. Getting a good hold on my elaap keife, I waited for the cow whizxing •arthward balloon to g«t within about a 1,000 f«et or the gr*aad. Then, with the rope lied around my waist and the other end fast to the bullooß, I jumped out feet foremost straight for the earth. I knew that if th« balloon remained stationary I would just about reach the ground at the end ot the rope, bat I figured on a good deal of reaction. In fact, I calculated the rise of the balloon would about meet the fall of myself at Bach a poiat as to make my fall comparatively light, and then, when she began to sink again, I woald be so near the earth that before she got to going at breakneck opeed I would be close enough to cut loose aud let myself down easy. As it turned out. I mi j lit have had a l«g broken or been shaken up pretty badly, but luck was with me. When I cut 1.-rcse, I dropped nbout 25 feet and lit square on top of a big straw stack where same men were thrashing. As for the balleon, she was bo ue rly exhausted Mtd was coming down so fast that the loss of my weight only gave her strength enough to go a oouale of hundred yard* across the field aud drop into a pond. So you see," concladed Profeeoor Wind, " that a little peseoce of mind ia valuable even to take np in a balloon with a IBM, f of if I had not had it and had not used it at the end of that piece of rope [ would sot now be here telling this story to you Of course it was not m serirae a mishap as I have experienced on other occasions, but still it is interesting What do yoo think of it ?" ** Urn— er," h»«it».*i»d""tti«jrejn^rter t " h*ve you got « piece of that rope I could look' s>tir^' r „