HONEYMOON IN THE AIR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14133, 7 August 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

HONEYMOON IN THE AIR.

The first honeymoon in the sky came to a happy termination at Holbrook, 14 miles from Boston Common. The young Massachusetts couple were Mr. and Mrs. Burnham, and they remained in mid-air from midnight till after dawn, come four hours. They had a thrilling experience. When up 2500 ft above Pitts field the balloon drifting northwards rapidly. The professional aeronaut; Mr. Van Sleet, who acted as - pilot, ' consulted his statiscope to see if the balloon were rising or falling. The instrument was out of order, so he asked Mrs. Burnham if she had any tissue-paper. -.She-produced, a book of powdered ricesheets, and the' pilot tossed a, couple of the leaves overboard and discovered that the aerial ship was moving on a level line.

j Then the electric flashlight failed, and all three were left in total darkness. They sat on' the floor, eating sandwiches and drinking Madeira wine. With the advent of the approaching dawn they found that Boston Harbour lay directly ahead, so they let out the gas and safely descended, alighting gently on an apple tree in an orchard belonging to a small farmer named Gilkey. He was already up, and when lie saw a lady climbing down his apple tree lie exclaimed, " Land sakee! Where in blazes have you come from?" Ten minutes later lie and his good wife entertained the visitors from cloudland to a second wedding breakfast. They . voted their aerial honeymoon " too glorious for words."