1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



705 



elites; but they pushed ahead in an awful 

 spirt of recklessness. I can imagine their 

 utter dismay when they got into the deep 

 mud. Xo wonder their chariots "drave 

 heavily." When it was too late they were 

 convinced that " the Lord " did in very truth 

 "fight " for his people; but the Hoods swal- 

 lowed them up as a punishment for their 

 transgression. 



I realize, while I make this protest in this 

 Home paper, there are multitudes who are 

 against me. In our great cities it seems to 

 be more and more the fashion to have big 

 excursions and every thing else going on, 

 even on God's holy day. On account of a 

 belated train Mrs. Root and I reached New 

 Orleans, once on a time, on Sunday morn- 

 ing. Neither of us will ever forget the shock 

 we experienced to hear bands playing, auc- 

 tioneers shouting the quality of their wares, 

 and to witness a regular bedlam, or perhaps 

 I might call it "vanity fair." Mrs. Root 

 clung to my arm and said, "O husband! let 

 us hunt up a church and some Christian 

 people, if there are any such, in this awful 

 place." So we joined in the throng that 

 was on the way to the nearest church, for it 

 was about church time, and looked after our 

 baggage later in the day. Things are not 

 so bad in our cities here in the North, but I 

 am afraid affairs are tending that way. 

 Railways, steamboats, and electric cars seem 

 to be doing all in their power to encourage 

 sabbath desecration. A prominent railroad 

 man told me they would be glad to give it 

 up. They say, however, the people demand 

 it, and they have to abide by the will of the 

 people. Years ago, as I have told you, the 

 A. I. Root Co. (come to think of it, I believe 

 it was plain A. I. Root then) declared that 

 no Sunday excursion should pass the curve 

 on our ground that connects our two rail- 

 ways. Our position at that time broke up 

 the excursion business in this locality, and 

 it has never been taken up since. It is not 

 a very difficult matter, dear friends, to stem 

 ■ the tide of evil when God is on your side. 

 Remember, "Five of you shall chase a hun- 

 dred, and a hundred of you shall put ten 

 thousand to flight." — Lev. 26:8. Who is 

 there among us who will "dare to be a Dan- 

 iel" in this needed reform? 



AVIATION AT THE CLEVELAND CENTEN- 

 NIAL. 



While I am on the subject of aviation I 

 have something further to say that does 

 not particularly belong to starting out with 

 flying-machines on Sunday. Through the 

 daily papers and other means, Cuyahoga 

 County's centennial, lasting from October 

 10th to the 15th, was very widely advertised 

 all over this region, and particularly the avi- 

 ation exhibitions. The following clippings 

 from the Plain Dealer of Oct. 15 tell us 

 something about it: 



About 200 policemen guarded all entrances to the 

 field yesterday: and any one who could think up a 

 sufficiently persuasive argument to get by the blue- 

 coats was entitled to admission without further 

 parley. Employees of the railroad were about the 

 only ones who saw the flights without going 

 through the formality of buying a ticket. 



Four machines will be ready for flight. Altitude, 

 speed, climbing, and bomb-throwing contests will 

 be on the program, which opens at 1 o'clock. 



To-day's program will be the most interesting one 

 of the entire meet. Altitude flights, glides from the 

 clouds, speed contests, and bomb-throwing experi- 

 ments will be staged. Post, Mars, McCurdy. and 

 Ely will be the contesting aviators. 



Fair weather is promised, and it is expected that 

 fully :30,000 persons will attend the meet. Saturday 

 is the last day. 



These exhibitions of flight were given in 

 Lakeside Park; but, unlike the exhibitions 

 I described on p. <j7o, last issue, where thou- 

 sands could view the spectacle, high or low, 

 rich or poor, black or white, without money 

 and withovit price, this exhibition was 

 guarded from the public at large by means 

 of canvas fences so high that no one could 

 well look over them. As it extended clear 

 around Lakeside Park it must have cost 

 quite a sum of money. Then the first one 

 of the clippings tells us that 200 policemen 

 were employed to keep the small boys who 

 could not raise half a dollar from crawling 

 under, and getting a glimpse of this won- 

 derful flying-machine. At the gateway we 

 were further informed that the fifty cents 

 entitled us to only a seat on the side-hill. 

 If we wanted to go down near the machines 

 and get a view of their construction, it would 

 cost another half a dollar. But even after 

 we had paid the fifty cents, or had even got 

 inside, we were not furnished a program. 

 The program agents were exceedingly busy 

 all during the entertainment in holding 

 said program under the noses of the people, 

 and telling them they could not understand 

 the flying-machine unless they had a pro- 

 gram. The program cost ten cents. One 

 of the clippings above tells us that 30,000 

 people were expected to pay fifty cents each, 

 or a dollar each, and then a dime more for a 

 program. Well, perhaps I would not have 

 said any thing about the ten cents for the 

 program were it not for the clips all the way 

 through it at the Wright brothers. Here is 

 a sample of them: 



It takes the combined efforts of a dozen men to 

 haul the Wright flyer around on its cumbersome, 

 wide-tired wheels and adjust it on the starting-rail 

 before it is as nearly ready for a flight as is the Cur- 

 tiss machine at all times. 



The Wrights are content, on the other hand, with 

 a machine which trundles along at forty miles an 

 hour, and which must either return to its starting- 

 rail before flying again, or else have the starting- 

 rail brought to it. 



Let us stop and consider a minute. The 

 advertisement says there were to be four 

 machines on the ground, and seven different 

 aviators were advertised to make flights. 

 We got our seats about one o'clock — the 

 time the flights were advertised to begin. 

 After an hour or more, two machines were 

 run out of the tent. After trying one of the 

 two for about half an hour, and failing ut- 

 terly to make it get off the ground, they 

 conifined their attention to the one remain- 

 ing machine. During the afternoon this 

 one machine made four flights of three to 

 five minutes each. There were no trials for 

 duration, no trials for altitude, no speed 

 contests, no flights with passengers, and no 

 feats to compare wjt)b the ones the Wright 



