"UP IN A BALLOON."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 194, 25 November 1910, Page 2

"UP IN A BALLOON."

AND PARACHUTING. Sebphe, the aeronaut, made a very successful balloon ascent from the Recreation Grounds yesterday afternoon. It was only one of many during an experience ot fourteen years spent in all parts of the world, but all of them were not so successful as yesterday's performance. His latest ascent attended with extra dangerous circumstances, said Sebphe on being seen by a News representative, occurred at Perth last April. "You noticed those white patches on the ballon, didn't you?" he said. "Well, she was on fire in those places as she rose; and at 500 feet up I reckoned it was time to go home. 1 was only 80 feet froni Mother Earth when the parachute opened properly." In spite of anything and everything risky, Sebphe likes the exhilarating game.

The inert mass of texture, as it lay on the ground in the open space at the sheds in the Recreation Ground was the antithesis of a balloon, but like the five or six hundred people who had gathered on the terraces, it wakened up when the fire was lighted and the inflation began. Soon, like a living- thing, the balloon was straining at the ropes, and at a preconcerted signal—a pistol-shot—all hands let go, and up she rose, dragging with lier a slim little human in red tights, the central figure of the show— Sebphe, the aeronaut. Up, up, up, soared the balloon, until the red figure was but a speck in the air, but 'the sound of the people's cheers reached him, and he waved his hand in recognition of the applause. On the aneroid registering 4400 feet, Sebphe cut away, and the parachute unfolding itself in the descent Mother Earth was safely reached at the Racecourse grounds, and the balloon, having turned turtle and emptied itself in the air, slid down ignominiously in the immediate vicinity. The whole proceeding was a complete success, and, on returning to the (grounds, Sebphe was accorded a salvo of applause.