witnesses claimed—especially when reports of accidents were made. For Mrs. Graham had her share of mishaps.
Once she landed in the sea off Plymouth when a strong wind bore her away from shore. Another time she had the misfortune to displace with her dangling grappling hook a piece of stone coping which fell to the street and killed a pedestrian. Again, in a much too speedy descent, doubtless caused by lack of knowledge of the laws of expanding gases, she bumped herself into unconsciousness for six days. After a slow recovery, her determination and energy asserted themselves and she went on with her ballooning again.
Mrs. Graham preferred to begin her exhibitions in courtyards or tea gardens or other similarly enclosed places where the crowd could be kept at bay. Then, too, there she could often collect a modest fee from the curious ones who wished to get a near view of the craft before it went up. In an open space this was difficult to do as all showmen know.
In Mrs. Graham’s time, as before, there was a great deal of interesting preparation before each flight. The hydrogen for the balloons which used that gas for buoyancy had to be made on the spot. Barrels of acid and old iron were set to bubbling for the populace to gape at and the precious gas generated, was visibly piped to the limp balloon.
As it filled and took shape, everyone became more and more excited.
Mrs. Graham was one of the first to use illumi-
