Updating Cowley

"… Stickney and Donovan's Great American Circus… whose stunt was to ascend in a hot air balloon and, on reaching a great height, make a parachute jump from the balloon basket."

For most of the 1889-90 season it was "Donovan and Stickney's North American Circus" with the appropriate translations for Venezuela and Brazil. They consolidated with the Silbon Family for three weeks (June-July)(name unknown) then reconstituted as "Stickney & Donovan's South American Circus" but it's doubtful they ever performed under the last name. James Donovan toured the West Indies and S.A. for ten straight seasons, sometimes with Robert Stickney, sometimes without. The "Great American" was a different season altogether. Helps to know if you're searching but less so for the song. Stickney-Donovan &co. never got off the boat at Martinique in 89-90.

Secondly, no balloon basket (gondola) with its convenient bags of sand ballast hanging over the side or burner roaring under the balloon. Propane and propane accessories were still unimagined. The balloon was inflated via the "pit & stack method" (a fire pit with a covered trench or pipe leading away to a short chimney) and that was it. No adjustments after takeoff. It's why they called 'em "Smokies."

No packed parachute, ripcord or harness either for that matter. The parachute's canopy was "stopped" and hung from the side of the balloon in the same manner as hoisting a stopped foresail. The parachute shroud lines were attached to a trapeze bar. To ascend, the aeronaut stood on a rope sling or sat on a second trapeze gripping the parachute's bar in one hand and the balloon's rigging in the other. At the "cutaway" one swung out on the parachute and broke free while the balloon shot away upwards and capsized.

That 500 foot descent in Port of Spain, Trinidad must have gone by pretty quick. At Saint-Pierre, Martinique Aeronaut Colby turned "sauts périlleux" (somersaults) on the trapeze, from 5,000 ft, no wires. He also turned 22 years of age five days later with over a 150 jumps already to his credit. A daring young man on a flying trapeze.