Cochise Review

AN AERONAUT'S FEAT.
Accident Compels Him to Crawl from Gun in Midair.
Five Thousand Spectators Witness the Thrilling Scene—Escapes from Perilous Predicament with Only a Few Scratches.

High above the heads of 5,000 spectators at Binghamton, N. Y., a man crawled from the mouth of a cannon attached to a balloon, a mere speck against the sky. It was a task apparently beyond human accomplishment, and when he slipped on the smooth sides of the gun there was a murmur of horror from the myriad of upturned faces, and several women fainted, but with one hand he grasped a rope, and for a moment swung suspended 2,000 feet above the earth. Then, by a tremendous effort, he regained the top of the cannon as the balloon and its burden shot earthward. The man was Prof. R. J. Burke, of Blossfield, Mich., and he came to Binghamton to make a series of ascensions at the Binghamton exposition. He was to be loaded into a cannon attached to the balloon, and when at the height of 3,000 feet was to be fired from the gun at a parachute hanging from the balloon's side, with which he was to descend. Shortly after starting he discovered that a rope had caught around the trigger which fired the cannon, and it would not explode. His only hope was to crawl from the inside to the top of the gun. Before this was accomplished the balloon had gained a swift downward impetus, and, though he endeavored to lighten it, it struck in a tree in a forest some miles away, and he was held a prisoner in the tree top an hour and a half before released. He escaped with a few scratches, but in those few moments he lived a lifetime of agony, and when he slipped from the gun he gave himself up as lost.