Page:The Fun of It.pdf/236

198 She was in demand at marriages, soirees, pageants and king’s coronations. She received besides lucra­tive offers to perform before crowds of city or country folk who collected to watch whatever she did. Her work seems more analogous to the barn­-storming era in heavier than air craft than that of her contemporaries. And it is pleasant indeed to record that Elisa Garnerin, after making innumer­able jumps and ascents, lived to a ripe old age and died peacefully in her bed.

England produced the next well known woman balloonist. Her name was Margaret Graham, and she was as different from Madame Blanchard or Mlle. Garnerin as anyone possibly could be. In the first place, she combined domesticity and a career in a more than modern manner. She was the mother of seven children and she managed to make exhibitions over all England and keep her home in London going at the same time.

Like Elisa Gamerin, she had advanced barn­-storming ideas. She took passengers in her balloon and made them pay dearly for the experience. Her husband seems to have managed her business af­fairs and was almost always on hand when she performed. Now and then he even went aloft with her.

Mrs. Graham had a keen advertising sense. As she was definitely earning her living by her per­formances, she took to writing accounts of her exploits for the newspapers of the day. As can be imagined, these sometimes differed from what eye