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The Journal.
Louisiana, Missouri.
Friday, September 24, 1875.
As will be see in our local department, the Pike County Agricultural Association have engaged, at great expense, the veteran æronaut and accomplished meteorologist, Prof, John Wise,  of Philadelphia, to make an air voyage from their Fair grounds some day during the week of the exhibition. We do not believe there is a reader or the Journal, old or young, who has not heard of this remarkable scientific balloonist, whose printed like reads like unto some fancy of Jules Vere.
Prof. Wise at our county fair.-We are gratified to make the announcement that the executive committee of our county fair have employed the services, at considerable expense, of Prof, John Wise, the oldest aeronaut in the world, to make a balloon ascension from the fair grounds some time during the week of the fair, the second or third day. This will be pleasant news to all of our readers, many of whom will consider it a treat to see the aeronaut himself. Prof. Wise is now in his 67th year, is in excellent health, and as full of good humor and vitality as a young man of 30. Louisiana will be proud of her distinguished visitor, and the people of city and county will unite in thanking the managers of the fair for adding so great an attraction to their exhibition. 

NARRATIVE OF PROF. WISE.
His 454th Aerial Voyage - The Start - A Zigzag Course and 50 Miles in 50 Minutes - The Scenery - Dissolving Views - Dining in Mid-air - The Descent in the Tree-tops - Escape of the "Century," etc., etc.
Messrs. Editors. -I started off on my 454th aerial voyage on Saturday last, Oct. 30th, at 3:15 p.m., from the vacant space in front of the Louisiana Gas Works. It was not a very good day for a first-class balloon ascension. Nothing but the earnest aid of a score of citizens could have enabled me to make the ascension at all, since the atmosphere was so boisterous and the gale so strong. The balloon was damaged; a hole of several inches in extent was punched through it, and hence the inflation was discontinued with an abatement of several thousand feet of gas. Another misfortune occurred, while getting the ship in trim, in the snapping of the valve cord by the surging of the balloon. This now inevitably necessitated me to a chance descent. All being now ready, the words "let her go" sent me adrift in an east by south course. In six minutes I was a mile high and still rising. Fifteen hundred feet higher I encountered a current from the north. This caused a swinging motion of the balloon more than usual. Once above this aerial whirlpool, my course lay direct for Clarksville, which I crossed fifteen minutes after starting. Here I distributed several copies of the Louisiana Journal, and they brought me up a recognition in shouts of those who saw them descending. The sounds of their voices fell faintly and pleasingly on the ear.
I had now attained a height at which the expanded gas was pouring out of the hole in the balloon. It issued out of it like white smoke from a meerschaum. 
Louisiana, as it faded away, made its exit in the most interesting manner. Not by fading in the distance, but by gradually covering itself completely in the closing of the earth over it, as though it was sinking gradually and calmly in some elastic medium. 
Clarksville looked "stuck up," like something of great self-importance, saying, here I am, what do you think of me? It seemed so closely packed up on its hillside, that it reminded one of "good goods."
After I left Clarksville the bottle of wine stowed in my car by my friend Stichter popped its cork, by the expansion of its carbonic acid, and admonished me to dine on a high old-fashioned Missouri lunch, supplied me by mine hosts, Doctor and Mrs. Bell, which I did with a good relish, the wine in the bottle smoking like a Dutchman's pipe.
The balloon now having somewhat exhausted itself, it sank into its first current and crossed the river for the third time. It coursed for 10 miles down, nearly all the way over the Mississippi, affording a grand view of both sides. Hills upon hills incessant lined its shores. Plains upon plains beyond these hills. The scene was new to my eyes. It brought strongly to mind the idea of eminent physicists, that our planet at great intervals of time interchanges its polar and equatorial positions, from the preponderant weight of the watery hemisphere. The idea of such a cataclysm became enhanced in viewing these trains of hills waving away as the balloon sped over them at the velocity of a mile per minute. And then the general appearance of the earth on either side of this great river impressed me with the idea of the subsidence of the ocean leaving a gorge for the bed and course of the river.
While the country in general along my route was a wilderness sparsely inhabited, the hill-tops in many places were cleared and covered with corn shocks, but their cultivator's houses were as hard to find as it is for the dog to find his game. Stuck down in these mountain gorges were hid the cabins of these backwood mountaineers. 
So far as animated nature was concerned my route was rather desolate - no voice - no sound now greeted my ear. No steamboat within sight on the river - all around me was still as death. Having lowered to within a thousand feet of the earth my course became more east, and I left the river at the little village of Hamburg. Not a soul could be seen in its street.
My course now was over as wild and rough  country as can be found in the state of Illinois, and the marshes of the Illinois river added little beauty to the landscape. At 5 minutes to four I came down into the tree-tops of a wilderness after crossing a cleared hill-top. Having some shelter on the east side of the hill I hoped to secure my air ship, and did succeed in lashing it well to the tree-top. While I was considering the best means of getting out of this high blown predicament, the balloon commenced to surge in lively bounds, each successive blast coming a litile harder, and in a few moments more I found the car crashing through the limbs. I stepped out and down - not on a bed of roses, but into an undergrowth of scrubs, and away went the "Century," flying her outer garment of shreds in the gale. Desolate and forlorn I scrambled up the mountain side through the underwood, with scratched fingers and scarred nose, and when I reached the top I saw the runaway balloon far to the east and several miles high, wending her flighty way homeward, or in that direction. Half an hour later I was mountain on one of the Bopp Roumain's horses, galloping down a rugged ravine for the river side, and in an hour and a half found the hospitable grocery of Wesley Reed, redolent with smoke-pipe fumes and country whisky. I should not forget that my friend Bopp brought me up at a clever looking store to get a night's shelter, but the proprietor, after viewing me in a suspicious manner, said "I cannot keep you." Wesley Reed, more considerate, submitted me to the inspection of his wife, and, passing muster, I was accommodated for the night in a friendly manner. Next morning the Rock Island took me aboard and steamed me up to Louisiana, under a complimentary season ticket tendered me some weeks ago by Commodore Davidson.
To the gentlemen who aided me so ably and kindly in the preparation of the ascension I return my heartfelt thanks.
John Wise.
Louisiana, Mo., Nov. 1st, 1875. 

Boston Daily Globe.
Wednesday Morning, Nov. 17, 1875.
Prof. John Wise on Ballooning
There was a good-sized audience in the Music Hall last evening, when Professor John Wise, the veteran aeronaut, lectured, or rather gave an informal interesting talk on "Ballooning." The Professor began by speaking of the discovery of the balloon and the erroneous ideas which were at first entertained in regard to the cause of levitation. When Montgolfier devised his balloon he had no idea that it was simply the rarefaction of the air which caused his little air-traveller to rise; and for some time, it was supposed that something peculiar to the smoke of the material used to inflate these fire balloons caused them to rise. Montgolfier was perfectly fearless in his investigations. Several times his balloons caught fire when in mid-air; but the flames were extinguished, and the recurrence of these unpleasant accidents did not daunt the spirit of the first aeronauts. When finally, the then King of France, Louis XVI., was led to investigate the discovery, he was sceptical of its utility, and would not allow Montgolfier the privilege of sending up any of his subjects in a balloon, so to end their lives.  But he consented at last that two criminals under sentence of death, should be sent up in the balloon, if the inventor wished.  
When after the successful voyage over the city of Paris had been accomplished, the scheme of Montgolfier and his noble patron was proved to be feasible, there was a great change in public opinion. The most extravagant conceptions in public opinion.  The most extravagant conceptions were formed as to the application of the science of aeronautics.  When these were found to be visionary the science fell into disrepute; and it was reserved for a later generation to demonstrate in part its true scope and relation to the world's progress. Professor Wise gave an interesting sketch of the advance which has been made in ballooning within the last half century, only modestly hinting at his own work in connection therewith.  He gave a description of the impressions produced by a first ascension above the clouds, the echoes which can be awakened among these masses of vapor, and how ozone is somehow generated in the clouds.  The entire lack of danger from explosion of balloons, however high they may have risen, Professor Wise claims to be proved conclusively by numerous experiment at Philadelphia in October, 1838. The value of aeronautics in its relation to other sciences was shown by a statement of the knowledge of meteorology which it has added to the world.  Estes' theory of the vertical origin of hail-storms has been conclusively established as correct b the personal experience of aeronauts, who have also learned much by observation concerning the nature of storms and the connection of electricity therewith. 
In conclusion, Professor Wise expressed very sanguine views in regard to the future of ballooning. In regard to trans-ocean aeronautics, he said that there is no the slightest doubt of its practicability, which is indeed, conceded by many scientific men.  The existence of an easterly current is no more to be doubted than the existence of the Gulf Stream, the trade winds and the horse latitudes; and a balloon that has attained the requisite altitude cannot fail to journey from west to east. He advance a novel theory in regard to keeping in the air current above the Gulf Stream, which would infallibly carry a balloon from these shores to the coast of Ireland, and referred to a device by a Swedish savant, designed to keep the balloon in the current. In conclusion, Professor Wise said the balloons might be made of copper or iron or any substance, provided there are means of their levitation, and spoke of the necessity of respectful recognition of the "art volante;" spite of all the cavil which attends every discovery, it is to be one of the greatest sciences which work in the progress of the world.