The people who were on the Eiffel Tower that breezy afternoon saw a
sight that never a man saw before
The people who were on the Eiffel Tower that breezy afternoon saw a
sight that never a man saw before. Out of the haze a yellow shape loomed
larger each minute until its outlines could be distinctly seen. It was a
big cigar-shaped balloon, and under it, swung by what seemed gossamer
threads, was a basket in which was a man. The air-ship was going against
the wind, and the man in the basket evidently had full control, for the
amazed people on the tower saw the air-ship turn right and left as her
navigator pulled the rudder-cords, and she rose and fell as her master
regulated his shifting ballast. For twenty minutes Santos-Dumont
maneuvered around the tower as a sailboat tacks around a buoy. While the
people on that tall spire were still watching, the aeronaut turned his
ship around and sailed off for the Longchamps race-course, the green
oval of which could be just distinguished in the distance.
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