EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 292, 6 May 1879, Page 2

EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE.

- iThe ,M«lbourpe ; correspondent, of jfche; Press- thus describes -an : accident which an aeronaut lately metwita. in that city, and the alHbut: miraculous manner;in< which he escaped aimihijation ;--■ . , ! ( |" But the; collapse;,,pfrth^,embassy,) evfen if it had possessed far, more vitality, than it did as a matter" of public concern, would have been utterly squelched byj -another' ,and far more;sensatioiral collapse that happened here on the nobh;of Monday.'/ In saying-it happened "here," 1 am,not speaking exactly by the; hook,: or with; certain knowledge,, It occurred; at a distance frdm this colony, and from, this terraqueous globe* which was, variously estimated by different reporters between a thousand feet-and V miles;,., ; l make noj estimate myself, but leave my readers to'determine thesdistance forrthemsolyes. But a fall even from the minimum;height named/must;, be •admitted to be a rather serious matter, when we find that men are constantly breaking their legs or their backs by faffing off their -Well, one Dick'jaiisenfetflOtfO feet,'or ten miles on the 5 dccastoft- iii ' question, and- was"scarcely. Strange, is i it not ? He scrambled out from among, the wreckage pf his balloon, and, only stopped ib* wash 'his^fece'iaiid.brisk his clothes, Vhjeh he !! ru|hed ! oii ; tb 'the stage ; of St. George's Hall'(in'the occupation of combined ■ vobalists and comedians and acrobats) to inform t#e'great audience then assembled ( that he l ,yas' stiiralive; '"' ,: "' ':""■.,*'",/!■'. V .^'! [ ' : ThisrJansen r was,,a few 'years ago', a. useful citizen, Who filled with advantage to |himself and his' eih|rl6yer's the : pcjsi-; tion of blacksmith's "striker. -But-the x fame and the'feats'(and ; perhaps also the gains) of .the .great..Blondin excited in his youthful bosom a noble ambition to do| likewise, and after some little preliminary practice s in the back yard" of an agricultural machine manufactory, he came out as Mr, L'Estrange, the Australian Blondin. In this new character he secured t some successes, for he. has strong muscles; steady nerves, and a good heart to do and* dare. . But when he appointed himself an aeronaut as well as an acrobat he dared too much. He has no knowledge of the business, none whatever. Having previously made- several failures in trying to go up, on Easter Monday; 'he determined to succeed or perish in the attempt, iand accordingly he patched up his old calico air ship as well as he knew how, and. papked it as" -full of t%e Melbourne United Gas Company's illuminating fluid ' as ever it would hold, and then tied up the neck or inlet opening of it as tight as he could. The order given, the restraining ropes were cut, and off the thing darted like a rocket, • straight away • into the blue empyrean, whatever that may ,be. * But, behold 1 in a few minutes, when the ballopn was quite out of sight (ac-, cording to some reports), it was ■ distinctly seen (according to others) to burst with a report as of a thunderclap (inaudible ,in the gallery), and down came,.the mortal l remains of it, with Mr Jansen (if that is his real name, as 1 am credibly informed; but, there is a deal of misleading information constantly on the wing in this city, and I may be wrong) , somehow mixed up in the wreckage. Now we are a great people for getting up testimonials and memorial and complimentary addresses, whether of condolence, or approbation, and what more consonant with the usual course of events than a committee of L'Estrange I sympathisers. He is accordingly to haie a benefit in some shape or another. The greatest benefit he could possibly, receive would be a y little' elementary training in physics ; just .so much las would teach him that gases expand i as [the atmosphere becomes hotter:or';rarer, and "must be let out or something will happen. It is rumoured that;lan enterprising impresario, of this city .has I offered L'Estrange £1000 to»repeat his performance .of Good Friday, provided the programme is ..strictly . carried out in every particular, the moneyjto be invested ; for the benefit of his widow and family, j if any. . '

A Wellington paper says . —" Captain Stanwood, of the barque Courier, did even a better stroke of business in Wellington than was at first supposed. He not only sold a ship which was not his own ( castles in New Guinea' which no existence, and sugar plantations which had yet to be purchased from the Natives, but he actually disposed of a number of agricultural sections, of 50 acres each, which existed only in his fertile imagination. He had a beautifully-colored map prepared, with glowing descriptions of the capabilities of the country, and he even showed a parchment deed, on which was the name of an eminent London firm of solicitorrs, which purported to be a grant from the Natives to himself of a large block of land. The astute captain managed to paint the land as a very El Dorado, without seeming to overdo it- He waa even candid enough to say that there were two great drawbacks, to the property. One was the vast number of pheasants, .parti ridges, and tnrkeys which overran the field; and the other was that you had to be careful in building or fencing, because if you drove a pile aix feet in the ground it waa almost certain to strike a natural, 'spring," whi6h bubbled up in such that •you had to dig a-trench'to carry it off. ! He could tell the exact number of bushels of: wheat or oats to the one section would grow, and could, show you splendid tobacco 'raised' on another section. Labor could behadfor a glass bead per day. His- listeners were ' convinced that a ; fortune was purchasable for : the small sum of £50, which was all he asked for a .section, explaining that. his was, to get; a few European "neighbors rather than to make moneys and begot rid of half a dozen sections in our city. Is.it necessary to add that on enquiry the purchasers find that they have been cleverly duped V"