A BALLOON ON FIRE IN MIDAIR.

Evening Star, Issue 4291, 27 November 1876, Page 3

A BALLOON ON FIRE IN MIDAIR.

A communication from Honda, Columbia, mentions that on a recent Sunday an aeronaut ascended from the public square, turning on a trapeze attached to his balloon, and performing various gymnastic feats. "It was a beautiful ascension. In less than a minute he must have been at the height of 2,000 feet, when the balloon apparently became stationary. He threw out the flag. We could scarcely distinguish whether it ■was the flag or the man himself; but the next [second] smoke was seen issuing from the side of the balloon, and the unfortunate aeronaut had lowered a rope and was clinging to the end below. 'Eta quemande— it is burning,' someone shouted, and the people suddenly became as maJSmen, running and screaming, weeping and tearing their hair. The gentleman standing next to me tried to cjuiet them by shouting, 'lt is not burning; it is false, brute, animal, it is only the gas escaping,' but soon the flames burst from the top, and pieces of cloth began to float downward, the balloon descending slowly at first, then rapidly, until all hope •was over, unless he should touch the top of the mountain, which is about 1000 feet above the town. The spectators rushed in the direction in which the balloon was supposed to be coming. In five minutes tie plaza was entirely deserted, with the single exception of one poor lunatic, who began marching round and round the oven that had furnished the fatal spark, chanting a requiem mass, at intervals kneeling and crossing himself, smiling all the while. It was pitiful to see him. In about an hour the crowd came slowly back with the pocr aeronaut still breathing but insensible, with a broken leg and internal injuries. He was seen by a man in a field to pass directly over the cross of the chapel m the cemetery, almost within reach of it, across the Valley of the Quebrada Seca, finally touching the ground halfway up the mountain on the opposite side, perhaps a mile and a half from the point of starting. He must have retained bis senses to the very last. As hellame to the ground he cried * Por Dios,' and struck on hia feet, still clinging to the rope. The ignorant man who saw him, having heard nothing of the balloon ascension, thought he had come directly from heaven, and was frightened and ran away as fast as possible ; but meeting those in search of him, turned and conducted them to th 9 spot. The unfortunate man lived but a few hours. •