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[[LEFT SHEET]]
but it is estimated
[[led?]] about eight miles, not count-
straight up-shoot into the air of
[[dle?]] at the start and other ascents
[[bre?]] descents during the journey.
was the sixth balloon flight for Hawley and the second for his [[companion?]].  They used an immense [[French?]] balloon named the Initial and [[owned?]] by A. M. Chandler.  The big [[bag?]] holds 35,000 cubic feet of gas.
Mr. Hawley's nerves were not the least unstrung by the experience. He and Mr. Atherholt, after seeing the balloon safely packed up for shipment to this city, boarded a train and came here. After dining heartily they went to the Aero Club, at No. 12 East Forty-second street, of which Mr. Hawley is one of the most enthusiastic members, and there he described the aerial journey to his friends. Later he gave an account of the trip to a World reporter at his home.

The Aeronaut's Story.
Mr. Hawley is forty-five years old and married. Like most amateur aeronauts, he is also an [[arednt?]] automobilist. He said:
"We made the ascension at Point Breeze, Philadelphia, at 12.37 P. M. The start did not seem very favorable, as there was very little wind, and that was variable and gusty, blowing five miles one minute and twenty the next. We had some trouble getting started, as the gusts of wind caused the balloon to sway from side to side.

There was a picket fence nearby, and there was some danger of our being thrown out and spiked on the pickets.
"We finally got aboard and when up twenty feet I told the starter to cut the rope. We shot straight up for about a mile. At this height one usually experiences an unpleasant buzzing in the ears, but to-day for the first time I did not have the sensation.
"When we had been in the air about five minutes we got our bearings and started off in a northerly direction. In about forty-five minutes we were sailing over Trenton and from there we drifted northeast to New Brunswick, which we reached about 1.50 o'clock.
"The wind at this time became very sharp, blowing about eighty-five miles an hour. It was driving us toward the coast. We debated whether we should keep at it and run the risk of being blown out to sea or make a descent. We decided on the landing. When we finally hit the ground, and we were some time getting there, we struck about half a mile west of Matawar, N. J., at 2.10 P. M.

Had to Dodge Buildings.
"Coming down we had to fight our way to clear trees and buildings, and to dodge some of the obstacles we had to dump out ballast at different times. In all we threw over about seventy-five pounds of sand.
"When we got over the place at which we decided to land we saw there was a creek about six feet wide. We figured the water was three feet deep and we determined to dodge that creek at all hazards, but it got us good in the end.
"I waited until we paased [[passed]] over the creek and threw out the anchor but the ground wasn't the right kind and the anchor didn't get a good hold. Gusts of wind caused us to zigzag back and forth over the creek. When I thought we were surely clar [[clear]] of it I opened the valve and we came down with a rush. The anchor had finally taken hold, but as we were descending a gust of wind upset my calculations and the basket, after bumping us about dumped us very neatly into the water.
"It was a good ride all but the finish."
[[Line]]
AERONAUT SHOT LIKE METEOR TO EARTH.
[[Line]]
Parachute Did Not Work Till Near Ground, but Did So in Time to Save His Life.
Little the worse for his thrilling experience of Sunday, when he had a miraculous escape from death through a sheer plunge of 1,400 feet, John Mack, aeronaut, was discharged, whole, from the Newark City Hospital last night.
"I'm all sound and ready for another trip to the clouds," announced the balloonist as he left the hospital, "but I hope I shall never have to undergo that awful experience of Sunday again."
Mack made an ascension at Hillside Park, Belleville, Sunday. His trip aloft was an eleventh-hour arrangement. He was manager for Mlle. Cassilles, of Philadelphia who was to have made the ascent in an immense hot-air bag. The unlooked for intervention of the father of the woman aeronaut, who declared his daughter was not yet fifteen years old and who took forcible possession of her, caused a change in the plans of the management. To satisfy the 2,000 persons in the park, Mack decided to make the ascent.
The aeronaut had devised a new arrangement for the parachute drop, his scheme being to add seemingly to the daring of the performance by retarding the opening of the parachute after cutting loose from the balloon. The newfangled mechanism did as much and a lot more than its inventor expected. It very nearly produced a tragedy in the presence of the multitude. 
Mack stayed with the balloon until it 

[[RIGHT SHEET]] 
ER MAKES
LOON FLIGHT.
reached a height of 2,000 feet. Then he was seen to release the parachute and to shoot downward with rocket-like speed. The spectators with fear saw that the parachute remained closed. Men and women turned away. Those with temerity enough to look upward could almost distinguish the anguish of Mack's face. When less than 600 feet up, the tardy mechanism of the parachute, which Mack still gripped with tenacious hold, began to do the work designed for it. The umbrella opened wide and the mad flight was checked. Mack said afterward that it was at that instant that he was closest to death, for the impetus given to his fall by the great distance traversed had made the retarding action of the parachute less effective, and it seemed as if a team of horses were trying to pull his arms from their sockets. But the spreading of the parachute saved Mack's life. It checked his fall so that he landed badly bruised but with no bones broken.

Transcription Notes:
Top paragraph is cut off/missing rest of the text; I transcribed what I could of that paragraph.