THE STORY OF AN ENTOMOLOGIST 



ington for their public flights at ArHngton, I met Orville Wright 

 at one of these evenings, along with the young naval officer, 

 Lieutenant Selfridge, who was killed during one of the first 

 trips aloft. 



Later, Santos Dumont, the Brazilian dirigible balloon expert, 

 who first flew around the Eiffel Tower, was there as a guest, 

 and proved to be as quiet and unassuming in his way as were 

 the famous Wrights. Still later, Glenn Curtiss was there, and 

 told us about his newly invented hydroplane. 



I think it was at a Wednesday evening at which C. M. Manley, 

 the engineer associated with Professor Langley in his first ex- 

 periment, was present, that the first suggestion was made that 

 the Langley man-carrying machine whose only experimental 

 flight had failed (nearly drowning Manley), should be braced 

 up, somewhat overhauled and tried once more, as a sort of 

 vindication of Langley. As every one knows, this was done with 

 success. 



I wonder if Graham Bell ever made an enemy. It seems im- 

 possible. I think that all who knew him must have loved him. 

 He was so catholic in his interests, he was so human, and he 

 was so exquisitely kind. I can not believe that he liked me any 

 more than he did hundreds of others, yet whenever I met him 

 I felt that I was the one person he especially wanted to see. His 

 tact and his careful watchfulness for the interest and comfort of 

 his guests were natural and not acquired. They came from his 

 warm heart and his liking for others. 



One night he and Mrs. Bell were giving a reception to the 

 Countess Montessori. The room was crowded, and a long line 

 of people was passing. As I took her hand, I greeted the Countess 

 in a choice Tuscan phrase that I had coined the night before 

 with the help of a skilled Italian scholar of my acquaintance and 

 had carefully committed to memory for the occasion. I had no 



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