414 HUDSON HONORED IN NEW YORK 



arid was begun at 9:15 o'clock in the morning. The last was, perhaps, the 

 most daring, the machine fluttering and diving in a strong easterly wind like 

 a wounded seagull, while the setting sun was aglow with excitement, and 

 was begun at 5 123 p. m. 



On this trip Mr. Wright did not fly high nor attempt to leave the new 

 part of the island used as the aeroplane starting field. But the bravery of the 

 exploit, the flashes the spectators saw of the aviator's rigid face, the tooting 

 of watercraft whose wheels were stopped in midstream, caused men, women 

 and children visitors to the island to cheer ecstatically. Officers and soldiers 

 waved their hats, shouted, and clapped one another on the back. 



WRIGHT UNMOVED, AS USUAL. 



Mr. Wright blinked the cobwebs of the sky from out his eyes, brushed 

 the cloud dust from his lapel and walked across the darkening sands to his 

 shed. Serene, modestly confident, if he took note of the excitement that his 

 feat had produced on land and water, he smothered any reflection of it within 

 himself. He and Miss Liberty are both self-contained and immovable. It is 

 believed that he is a man after her own heart. 



Curtiss made a short flight of about four hundred yards at 7 a. m. He 

 slept the night before on the island. The machine had never been tried, 

 which was also true of Mr. Wright's aeroplane, and Mr. Curtiss did not 

 make a further attempt yesterday. The first test indicated to him that he 

 might do better with a four-bladed propeller instead of one of two blades. 

 The former was put in position, but the machine was not again taken out of 

 the shed. 



Mr, Wright arrived at the island shortly before 9 o'clock. The machine 

 was taken to the center of the sandplot and placed, facing due west, on the 

 monorail. A small crowd had assembled. Mr. Wright and Mr. Taylor, his 

 chief mechanician, turned the two propellers until the motor caught the spark. 

 Soldiers stood at a respectful distance. The aeroplanist, wearing his familiar 

 Scotch plaid cap, walked deliberately to the front of the machine, listened a 

 moment to the rhythm of his motor, then took his seat. At 9:15 o'clock the 

 machine was in motion, and in an instant more the aviator was soaring. 



Two circles were cut over the starting grounds, and then he swung out 

 over Buttermilk Channel to the end, turned west at the northern end of Gov- 

 ernor's Island and came back to the starting point. He completely circled 

 the island, having involuntarily dipped a little when saluted by the whistles 



