Evening Capital And Maryland Gazette

THE FIRST AERONAUT.

Kingsley's Queer Idea and an Embar-
rassing Coincidence.

Charles Kingsley was at a dinner

once with the aeronaut Coxwell. It was

shortly after Coxwell and a companion

had made a flight in which they had

risen so high that Coxwell's hands

were frozen and he had time only to

tear open the air valve with his teeth.

A. C. Benson tells the story in "The

Leaves of the Tree" in the North

American Review. After dinner Kings-

ley suddenly said:

"I have often thought that the first

man that ever went up in a balloon

must have been a d—dentist."

Some one laughed and said, "What

an extraordinary idea!"

"I don't know," said Kingsley. "A

man who is always looking down

people's throats, and pulling their teeth

about, and breathing their breath, must

be inspired with a tremendous desire

to get away and above it all."

Coxwell leaned forward and said

very good humoredly. "Well. Mr.

Kingsley. it is true that I am a dentist.

but it was not that that made me be-

come an aeronaut."

"My d—dear Mr. Coxwell," said

Kingsley. flushing red. "I am sure I

beg your pardon. I had no idea it was

so. You must have thought me singu-

larly ill mannered to make a joke of

it."

Kingsley could not recover his spirits

for the rest of the evening. He hated

giving pain to any human being more

perhaps than anything in the world.