BALLOONING, MODERN. 



BAPTISTS. 



81 



need onfl failed to keep a(li)iit, reaching (lie 

 ..1 lifty-three mile- ln>m the .starling point, 



yages have attracted general atten- 



|mri iriilarly the liiial ones of Donaldson 



anil Wi-e. 'I'lii' former rose fn>ni tin- lake front 



n'Hgo, taking with liim young (Jrimw 1, 



irter. They Moated tf at a ten-mile gait 



.y ii|> the lake, and were at last 1<>M to 



rrilie Monn arose that night, and in 



reliable ne\\> u;i> had of them for weeks, when 



the body of (irimwood was found in the sand on 



the distant slum- of the lake. The finding of 



the liody, with a torn HIV- preserver around it, 



told all that will ever be known of their fate. It 



is probable that Donaldson remained in the car 



and sank with the balloon. 



Wise arose from St. Louis, having a reporter 

 with him named Burr. The wind was high and 

 favorable for a very long voyage; and, besides, 

 a landing in such a wind would have been dan- 

 gerous. They continued into the night, but the 

 gale did not abate. The balloon was not very 

 laiv. and was incapable of remaining up a great 

 while. Three hundred miles in a straight line 

 they went for Lake .Michigan, and after reaching 

 it were swamped in its oold embrace, as Donald- 

 yon and (irimwood had been. Burr was washed 

 ashore and his body was found, but Wise prob- 

 ably sank in his car. 



Highest Ascents. The highest ascent is 

 claimed by Cogswell, the English aeronaut, and 

 Glaisher, the meteorologist, who ascended to- 

 gether from Wolverhampton, England, Sept. 5, 

 Glaisher, in his account of the ascension, 

 published in his " Travels in the Air," claims to 

 have made an instrumental record of 6 miles, 

 and would like to have it believed that they rose 

 another mile after their exertions had ceased. 

 He said his eyes failed him, and he called on Mr. 

 Cogswell to help him read the instruments ; but 

 "in consequence of the rotatory motion of the 

 balloon, which had continued without ceasing 

 since leaving the earth, tbe valve line had be- 

 come entangled, and Cogswell had to mount 

 into the ring to readjust it." The statement is 

 rather unscientific, and it will always be a 

 conundrum how the cord could become entangled 

 in that way. Had the scientist dealt with plain 

 facts, more credence would be given to his story, 

 but he attempted the sensational by telling how 

 Cogswell lost control of his hands after climbing 

 into the hoop, and, without saying how he man- 

 aged to sustain himself in such a position, tells 

 us that he took the valve cord between his teeth 

 and let off gas enough to send the balloon down. 

 Here is another riddle for the practical aeronaut. 

 Why did he want to open the valve at all, when 

 a simple cessation of his labors from pushing the 

 balloon to a greater height would have accom- 

 plished the same object f Though he opened the 

 valve at 6 miles, Mr. Glaisher was so anxious 

 for the greatest-height record that he would fain 

 stretch it to 7 miles. He has given us his re- 

 markable story of the ascent with a heavy cot- 

 ton balloon of 90,000 cubic feet capacity, filled 

 with coal gas, and has made it well-nigh impos- 

 sible for the lightest balloon filled with the 

 purest hydrogen to er)inj>ete with him. It is 

 certain that coal gas will never do it again. 



A few years since three Frenchmen ascended 

 VOL. xxxi. 6 A 



together with the intention of rising to the 

 greatest possible height. They carried bags of 

 oxygen to supply them witli its life-sustaining 

 proiM-rlies, and after they had risen to the height 

 of five miles, Iwing re-invigorated by its inhala- 

 tion, one of their number suddenly seized three 

 bags of sand, one after another, and discharged 

 their contents over the side of the car. Almost 

 instantly the three men became asphyxiated. and 

 only one of them recovered after reaching the 

 earth. The death of the two aeronauts was sup- 

 posed to have been caused by the increased rarity 

 of the air; but it seems more probable that the 

 gas descending upon their heads as it was forced 

 out of the mouth of the balloon from the rapid 

 expansion caused by the injudicious discharge 

 of ballast, produced the effect. 



Professional aeronauts are very few in America, 

 though there are numbers who follow some other 

 occupation and make occasional ascents. It is 

 safe to say that not more than half a dozen 

 names could be mentioned of persons who de- 

 vote themselves exclusively to this pursuit. In 

 England there are as many as here, while in 

 France they are more numerous, because of the 

 more frequent opportunities for ascension, no 

 fete day lacking its balloon attraction. The 

 whole number of professional aeronauts in the 

 world is not more than fifty ; but parachute 

 jumpers and hot-air balloonists are not included, 

 for they can be counted by hundreds in every 

 civilized country. 



The dangers of ballooning are often magnified, 

 but it can not be denied that for him who fol- 

 lows it for a life-time there is more or less of peril. 

 Many narrow escapes occur and sometimes a life 

 is lost, as in the case of Thurston, Donaldson, 

 and Wise, Stiner died from the effects of ex- 

 posure in a descent near San Francisco, where 

 he was compelled to wade for hours through 

 water, sometimes up to his neck, in seeking to 

 extricate himself from an isolated position. The 

 accidents to balloons are frequent. It is rare, 

 indeed, that twenty ascensions can be made 

 without three or four wrecking experiences. 

 Trees are ordinarily the cause of these mishaps. 

 The oiled fabric tears easily, and through fail- 

 ure to obtain anchorage, and high winds, an aero- 

 naut frequently loses more in a single descent 

 than his earnings for half a dozen ascensions; 

 but, with all these drawbacks, there is no more 

 fascinating enjoyment. 



BAPTISTS. I. Regular Baptists in the 

 United States. The following is a summary 

 of the statistics of the Baptist churches in the 

 United States as they are presented in the Ameri- 

 can Baptist Year- Book for 1891 : Number of as- 

 sociations, 1,882; of ordained ministers, 22,708; 

 of churches, 34,780; of members. 8,164.227; of 

 Sunday schools, 18,505. with 1:51,889 officers and 

 teachers and 1,280.663 pupils; increase by bap- 

 tism during the year, 140,058; value of church 

 property, $61,646,377. Amount of contributions : 

 For salaries and expenses, $7,186,532 ; for mis- 

 sions. $1,045,871; for education, $874*069; mis- 

 cellaneous contributions, $2.609,(>;{?. The num- 

 IKTS for the rest of North America are: British 

 Provinces, 795 churches. 517 ministers, ami '. 

 members; Mexico, 1,161 members: Cuba, Ilayti, 

 Jamaica, and other islands, 42.910 members. 

 Total for North America, 35,817 churches, 23,344 



