The Religious Life of the Zu?i Child

n, all of whose history from his youth to his untimely death

ede to Washington Harrison Donaldson the high rank-high, indeed, in a do

s; and yet no man ever possessed a saner mind than Donaldson; no man was ever more fond of family, friends, and life in general, or normally more reluctant to undertake what he regarded as a needlessly hazardous task. His boldest and most seemingly reckless feats were to him no more than the every-day work of a man of a strong mind, of a stout hea

ry Andrew," a public shocker, doing feats before the multitude to still the heart and freeze the blood, those whose fortune it was to know him intimately realized him to be a man of the most serious purpose, with a great faith in the future of aerial navigation. He

ver knew him well, and it is to his memory and to the survi

ts active during the Revolution, gave the boy the name of Washington; the father, an ardent worker for General Harrison's candidacy for the presidency in the "Tippecanoe-and-Tyler-too" campaign, added t

unsupported eight-foot ladder, and balancing himself upon the topmost round in a way to startle the cleverest professional athletes. A little later, getting hold of any old rope, stretching it

ability in sketching. Later he employed this art in illustrating some of his aerial voyages. During these studio days he studied

t Philadelphia at a height of twelve hundred feet above the water. After passing back and forth repeatedly over this rope, he finished his exhibition by leaping from a rope into the river from a height of approximately ninety feet. Two years later he successfully

work in itself was not one to emulate-for there are perhaps few less useful tasks than those that made up his occupation-nevertheless, he was training himself for his career; and the absolute mas

feet of gas. The gas was of poor quality, and when ready to rise he found it impossible even to make a start until all ballast had been thrown from the basket; and when at length the start was made, it was only to alight in a few minutes on the roof of a neighboring house

; and surplus ballast, which may be thrown out to lighten the balloon when approaching the ground, to avoid striking the earth at dangerously rapid speed. Hence it followed that, his car having been stripped

mediately upon his return from this, his first trip, he not only announced that he would make another ascent the ensuing week, but that he would undertake something never previously undertaken in aerial navigation, namely, that he would dispense with the basket or car swung benea

his own phraseology, was "so glorious that I

ht breeze. When approximately a mil

ing on the bar, and then followed one feat after another-hanging by one hand, one foot, by the back of his head, etc., until the blood ceased to curdle in the veins of th

n Donaldson gave a more violent tug at the cord in his effort to open the valve, a great rent was torn in the top of the gas bag, through which the gas poured, causing the balloon to fall with appalling rapidity. Long afterward

him was always struggling for utterance, are pointed out by a chronicler in the words adde

ooks almost surrounded by water, and the various tributaries to the Elizabeth River appear magnificently beautiful, look

ronicl

nance while relating his experience. The motion of the balloon he describes as delightful, particularly in ascent,

lar exploit, a handsome gold medal was giv

ronaut, and indeed developed conditions from which none could possibly have hoped to escape with li

on her side. I climbed half way up the netting, opened my knife with my teeth, and cut a hole about two feet long. The instant I cut the hole the gas rushed out so fast that could scarcely get back to the ring. After reaching the ring I lashed myself fast to it with a rope. While I was climbing up the rigging to cut the hole in the side of the balloon, my cap fell off, and so fast did I descend that before I got half way down I caught up with and passed t

dead calm or sailing at the rate of one hundred miles an hour, I am perfectly still; and when I went the ten miles in seven minutes

ces, so also he was a bit of a poet and left many pieces describing in lofty thought, but

a lively trip when sa

'Let her go!' To la

is like a dream, when

ir, I love above t

is descriptions equal in clearness and beauty anything ever written of the im

h. The ever-shifting scenes, the bright, dazzling colors, the soft roseate and purple hues, the sudden light and fiery sun . . . and on I go as if carried by spiritual

her things, in no small measure a philo

te exercise up where the air is pure, instead of which they spend hours in a place which they call their office. They sit themselves in a dark corner, hidden from the sun's rays, and in one position remain for hours, inhaling the poisonous air with the room full of carbonic acid gas, which is as poisonous to m

y and scientific hygiene

t for others, reluctance to cause needless injury or pain, which is always the characteristi

hould not be allowed. Did you ever think what a barbarous set we were-worse than Indians or Fiji Islanders! There is nothing living but what we

sor John Wise, who as early as 1843 had done his best to raise the funds necessary for a transatlantic journey by balloon, joined forces with Donaldson, and together they made application to the authorities of the city of Boston for an adequate appropriation. This was voted by one Board but vetoed by another. Thereupon, The Daily Graphic took up their proposition, and undertook the financing of the expedition un

r meeting any emergency arising from a landing in a wild, unsettled region. Moreover, a carefully selected set of sci

d after the bag had received 100,000 cubic feet of gas, she became so nearly uncontrollable, notwithstanding 300 men and 100 s

than half full, the bag burst, and the aeronauts concluded that she was of a size impossible to handle. The bag and ri

s begun at 1 p.m. on Sunday, October 6, and by 10.30 p.m. of that day the inflation

respondent for the Graphic; George Ashton Lunt, an experienced seaman, as navigator. Ascent was made, with

house, or into some forest or other obstacle, but selected a piece of open ground, and advised his companions to hang by their hands over the side of the boat and drop at the word. The word at length given by Donaldson, both he and Ford dropped-a distance of about thirty feet, happily without serious injury other than a severe shaking up. Lunt, curious about the distance and the effect of such a fall, as well as unfamiliar with the act

of his profession as an aeronaut that Donaldson ever undertook to do. This failure is not to be counted to his discredit, for precisely as a good

ontinued for twenty-six hours. This was the longest balloon voyage in point of hours ever made up to that time, and indeed it remained a

w Madison Square Garden, in a balloon built by Mr. Barnum to attempt to break the record for time and distance o

r having told them plainly that the balloon was leaky, the wind blowing out upon the lake, and that the ascent must necessarily be a peculiarly dangerous one. Nevertheless, they decided to take the hazard. Later they regretted their temerity. Husbanding his ballast as best he could, nevertheless, the loss of gas through leakage was such that by midnight, when well over the centre of Lake Ontario, the balloon descended into a rough, tempestuous sea, and was saved fro

these hours of terrible

, having had nothing but a noon lunch, was handed up the bread. . . . About three o'clock in the morning, when the basket was wholly immersed in the water, and the inmates clinging almost lifelessly to the ropes, the Professor climbed down to them, and they were surprised to see in his hand the two small pieces of bread they had given him the night before. He had hoarded it up all night, and instead o

was on, the boat appro

sacrifice himself for others, is no less than an epic of the noblest heroism that sta

last ascent, from Chicago. The balloon was already old-more than a year old-the canvas weakened and in many places rent

in the basket immediately before the hour of starting. At the last moment Donaldson concluded that it was unwise to take more than one, and required lots to be drawn. Maitland tossed a coin, called "Heads,

face of the lake. The tug changed her course to intercept the balloon, but before it was reached, probably through the cutting away of the drag rope and anchor, the balloon bounded into the air, and soon di

ship. A month later the body of Grimwood was found

e of the leak of gas,-but ultimately she must again have descended upon the raging waters of the lake, where Grimwood, of untrained strength, soon became exhausted while trying to hold himself secure in the ring, and fell out into the lake. Thus again relieved of weight, the balloon received a new lease of life, and travelled on probably, to a fatal final descent in some untrodden corner of the northern forest, where no one ever has chanced to stumble across

cident and

itter attack upon Donaldson for having sacrificed his passenger's life to save his own. The story moved me so much that I wrote an open letter to the Sun over my own signatur

He was a man within a year or two of my friend's age at the time of his death, Wash Donaldson's very self in face and figure! He had the same bright, piercing eye, that looked straight into mine; the same lean, square jaws and

e in arms at the time his fat

nly conduct-a grief that was the greater because they possessed no means to refute the charge. Brokenly, with tears of gratitude, he told of their joy in rea

record of his father's character and deeds he owns a leg

I have lost the addre

these lines I hope he w