Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1883 — A THRILLING EXPERIENCE. [ARTICLE]

A THRILLING EXPERIENCE.

A French Aeronaut Dragged to the Clouds at the End of a Rope. a. [Cablegram from Paris.] At Rpyan, on the Gironde, M. Gratien, a well-known aeronaut was about to make an ascent in a hot-air balloon called La Vidouvillaise last Friday. Mdlla Albertine, the heroine of several balloon ascensions, was seated in the car, and M. Gratien was holding in his right hand a loose coil tied to one of the cords that served to attachfthe balloon. The air-ship unexpectedly broke loose, and the cord, unrolling itself with lightning rapidity, caught in a sort of running knot around the first and second, fingers of Gratien's right hand. The aeronaut was immediately whisked off into the air COO meters high. In vain he tried tohaul himself up on the cord and loop ft over his arm. After frantic efforts he became exhausted, and hung at‘the end of tho cord suspended solely by his two fingers, and suffering excruciating agony. Owing to the jerking of the balloon the cord cut like a razor through the flesh to the bone. In that situation Gratien was carried to the distance of nearly four miles at the height of 660 meters above the earth. Mdlla Albertine. overcome by the horror of the situation, fainted away and sank helpless to the bottom of the car. As the air in. the balloon became cool it descended, but bumped against the earth in the midst of n dense mass of thorny shrubbery. Gratien. was not only stripped of his clothes, but his skin was literally torn in strips Irom his body as he was dragged for nearly half a. mile through the thorny brambles. Some peasants finally managed to cut the cord. Gratien appeared to be a mass of wounds, and to be near bleeding to death. Strangeto say, he did not lose consciousness for a single instant He suffered no internal injury, and although his condition is critical, he will probably recover. When the rope was cut and the balloon was freed from the weight of Gratien's body, it again arose in the air carrying off Mdlie. Albertine. - By singular good fortune it soon landed in a marsh, and the lady at last stood on terra firma. She was sorely distressed in mind and badly scared, but otherwise safe and sound.