Financial History Issue 117 (Spring 2016) | Page 16
Bettmann / Contributor
blue suit and cocked hat bedecked with
white feathers strutted around the heap,
looking important. Incredibly, the heap
began to expand slowly as an orchestra
played a slow, solemn accompaniment.
Soon an “immense concourse of spectators” had assembled to view the “majestic
sight,” which they found “truly awful and
interesting.” Discovering that the heap
of cloth was in fact a balloon, and that
they were about to witness it in flight,
the crowd broke into frenzied applause.
Some noticed men hawking tickets — five
dollars to enter the prison yard and witness the spectacle up close. This crowd,
though, possessed a sort of collective intelligence. Reasoning that once the balloon
ascended it would be just as visible from
outside the yard as it was inside, spectators
spurned the ticket-sellers