Rensselaer Standard, Volume 1, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1879 — Narrow Escape of an Aeronaut. [ARTICLE]

Narrow Escape of an Aeronaut.

One of the most extraordinary escapes from death ever recorded occurred on Easter Monday to an teronaut named L’Estrange. In the presence of thousands of spectators he made an ascent from the Agricultural Grounds, on the St. Kiida road, in the balloon Aurora, the same, it is said, which was used to convey dispatches during the Franco-Prussian war. When the balloon had attained the great altitude of a mile and three -quarters it suddenly collapsed, the gas bursting through its side; but the parachute came into play, and, instead of the wreck falling like a stone, it came down in a zigzag course, and finally struck a tree in the government domain, thus breaking the fall, and L’Estrange reached the ground half stunned, but alive. The excitement when the balloon came down was intense. Women screamed and fainted, some fell on their knees, with their hands clasped in prayer, while hundreds of meu rushed into the government domain expecting to find a mangled body, but to their astonishment they discovered L’ Estrange alive, and almost unhurt. The escape was -certainly one of the most marvelous ou record. The balloon used was an old oue, and L’Estrange patched up some rents in the morning, but the direct cause of the catastrophe was the inexperience of the aeronaut, who did not allow for the great expansion of gas consequent upon his rapid ascent. L’Estrange is a good deal bruised, and he has sprained his right arm, but he is in high spirits, and talks of making another ascent if he can patch up the Aurora, or obtain a substitute. —[Melbourne Argus. «•