Page:The Fun of It.pdf/240

200 nating gas for her lifting agent. She bought it from the local gas works and often found the pres­sure so low that it took hours to fill the envelope sufficiently. Sometimes, despite precautions, her flights were considerably delayed from this cause.

“Personal appearances” were to Mrs. Graham highly desirable. Not only were her ascents played up, but she attempted to return out of the mys­terious ether to the same spot to show herself again during a given entertainment. I do not mean she came back in her balloon. Oh, no. She brought that down as best she could, wherever she could, and left it to be guarded while she departed for the rest of the show. Her second appearance before the crowd who had seen her depart a while earlier was the signal for a tremendous ovation with usu­ally a few words from her in order.

Her program was well planned. Even though she wished to get down and back to her “public” as quickly as possible, she was careful that no spec­tators saw her preparations to land. At night she waited until darkness hid her from their view and in the daytime until she had passed beyond their vision, either by high flying or low. Then she came down as expeditiously as possible and anchored just above the tree tops.

Her husband, in the meantime, had set forth in a postchaise and had followed, as nearly as he could, her course. He usually found her by sighting her bobbing balloon twenty or thirty feet above the roadway. He helped her down and escorted her