Alexandria Gazette

Ballooning AT Frederick—There was something very like a failure at Frederick, again, on Friday last—being the day on which Dr. S. Johnson proposed to gratify the expectant public of that place with a near view of a Balloon Ascension—as some amends for their former disappointment. But when the hour came, it appears that the Dr. had a competitor for the honors and perils of the voyage, in the person of Mr. Woodall, the owner of the Balloon. After some difficulty and much argument, (as we learn from the Examiner,) the case was submitted to the judgment of the assembled multitude, who decided in favor of Mr. Woodall.

"At six o'clock, the inflation having been completed, that gentleman took his station in the car and the moorings of the balloon being cut, it rose majestically some ten or fifteen feet and then it fell. Mr. Woodall's place was immediately supplied by Mr. Simpson, with whom the Balloon rose perhaps an hundred feet in the air and sailed off in a northwesterly direction, about a quarter of a mile, when it alighted in a corn field, whence it was brought to town and towed about the streets by means of a cord attached to the car. We learn that, when Mr. Simpson alighted, he was almost in puris naturalibus, having been obliged to divest himself of nearly all his clothing to prevent his weight from bringing the balloon to the ground in the midst of the crowd. So ends ballooning in Frederick."