A BALLOON ASCENSION AT MIDNIGHT
AUTHOR’S AUTOGRAPH EDITION OF
A BALLOON ASCENSION AT MIDNIGHT
LIMITED TO THIRTY COPIES ON
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THIS COPY IS No. ____
“There is no conquest to which the entire human race aspiresmore ardently than the Empire of the Air.”
A. Santos-Dumont:
The North American Review.
AEROSTATION
M. Etienne Giraud, l’intrépide aéronaute, et M. GeorgesHall de San-Francisco, partis de Paris dans le Rolla, out atterrià Cézy, situé à 5 kilomètres de Joigny, après une tranversée dedix heures assez mouvementée, quoique sans accident.
Le Figaro.
A Balloon
Ascension at Midnight
BY
WITH SILHOUETTES BY
GORDON ROSS
PAUL ELDER AND MORGAN SHEPARD
San Francisco
1902
Copyright, 1902
by
George Eli Hall
“Upwards of five hundred thousand two-legged animals withoutfeathers lie around us, in horizontal positions; their heads all innight-caps, and full of the foolishest dreams.”
Carlyle: Sartor Resartus.
I.
WE HAD agreed, my companion and I, that I shouldcall for him at his house, after dinner, not later thaneleven o’clock.
This athletic young Frenchman belongs to asmall set of Parisian sportsmen, who have taken up “ballooning”as a pastime.
After having exhausted all the sensations that are to befound in ordinary sports, even those of “automobiling” at abreakneck speed, the members of the “Aéro Club” now seek inthe air, where they indulge in all kinds of daring feats, the nerve-rackingexcitement that they have ceased to find on earth.
I might add that these facts were but vaguely known to mebefore I had been introduced, by a mutual friend, to this nouveausiècle young sportsman, and had accepted his invitation toaccompany him in his next aerial voyage.
When we reached the vacant lot at the huge gas works ofSt. Denis, where our balloon was being inflated, I could not helpfeeling a bit alarmed at the sight of that little bubble—only afew hundred cubic metres—and the very small basket whichwere soon to take us up in the air.
All the éclat, the ceremonial, and the emotional “good-bys”that usually accompany the “let her go!” of a balloon, weretotally lacking when the “Rolla” left the earth. The sta