706 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Nov. 1 



students made on the afternoon I visited 

 them. In fact, the whole afternoon seemed 

 to be spent in fussing with the machines to 

 make them go. After it got so near dark 

 that it was difficult to see, 1 am told that a 

 machine made a flight over the lake; and it 

 seemed to me that the four brief flights I 

 witnessed were purposely kept near the 

 ground so people outride of the canvas in- 

 closure would be unable to get a glimpse of 

 them. I suppose the seats on the side-hill 

 would hold, say, 20,000 persons; but I felt 

 glad to notice that only a small part of the 

 seats were occupied. Huber said that, the 

 day before, the seats were nearly all filled; 

 but instead of following the advertised pro- 

 gram, one machine made quite a few brief 

 flights of four or five minutes each. It cer- 

 tainly was a grand sight, and worth going 

 miles to see, especially when that one ma- 

 chine ran along the smooth ground and 

 gradually climbed up into the air. But 

 what a poor tribute, to put it mildly, these 

 people were paying (I do not know exactly 

 who was responsible for it) to the Wright 

 brothers who first demonstrated to the world 

 that a machine could be made to climb up 

 into the air without any balloon at all — 

 what a poor tribute, I say, to pay, to have a 

 man around peddling these programs con- 

 taining such matter as I have quoted; yet 

 the vender of those leaflets actually pushed 

 them under our noses while the machines 

 were leaving the ground. He got in my 

 way so many times I was sorely tempted to 

 push him over dow^n hill, especiallv after 

 reading what they said about the Wrights. 

 Let us now take that up for a minute. It 

 never took a dozen inen to haul around the 

 Wright flyer, even in their first experiments. 

 I know, for I was there; and at the very 

 time this statement was made, it did not 

 take any men (or boys either) to get the 

 Wright flyers up to the starting-place. The 

 aviator just starts his engine, and the pro- 

 peller which carries it over the ground or 

 through the air takes it up to the starting- 

 point, even if it is up hill. The Curtiss 

 crowd, or whoever it was, kept that crowd 

 of 30,000 people, more or less, waiting while 

 a couple of men ran themselves out of breath 

 to help get the machine back to the tent for 

 more gasoline. Why in the world he did 

 not put on his propellers and run back I 

 could never tell. The Wright brothers have 

 not used a starting-rail this season, and per- 

 haps not last season nor the one before that. 

 Several times they have been asked or have 

 been offered money to go into the "show 

 business;" but they have always declined, 

 and God will honor them for it, even if the 

 people do not; and I believe, too, they have 

 refused to sell machines to those who want- 

 ed to go into the "show business." I have 

 been informed on good authority that Glenn 

 H. Curtiss visited the Wright"^ brothers be- 

 fore he made a flying-machine at all. They 

 extended to him every courtesy, and per- 

 mitted him to look their machines all over 

 at his leisure; but it would seem that, as 

 soon as he left, he copied their machine as 



near as he could without too flagrant an in- 

 fringement on their patents. At present I 

 know nothing about the suit for infringe- 

 ment. God forbid that the " graft business " 

 or any thing like it should be permitted to 

 go any further in the field of aviation. Fly- 

 ing-machines are a gift from God to his 

 children of this new century; and it ill be- 

 comes us to use this gift for taking the mon- 

 ey from our hard-working people, especially 

 taking the money and tlien not furnishing 

 the entertainment that was promised and 

 paraded through all the papers. May be I 

 have found fault enough for one time; but 

 right here I must put in another protest. 

 Many of the aviators (but not the Wright 

 brothers, thank God) are users of cigarettes; 

 and when they alight from a flightthe first 

 thing they do is to fish a cigarette out of 

 their pocket and light it w^hile thousands of 

 country boys and Sunday-school children 

 too are looking on. What an example to 

 set before the rising generation! 



Later. — This is Monday, Oct. 17. It oc- 

 curs to me that perhaps the Cleveland offi- 

 cials, or whoever is responsible, had a few 

 twinges of conscience about taking the peo- 

 ple's money during the week and returning 

 them so poor an equivalent; so they decid- 

 ed to give a free exhibition on Sunday. This 

 morning's paper tells us: 



When J. A. C. jSIcCurdy had reached an altitude 

 of about 3300 feet yesterday afternoon in his trial for 

 altitude. Robertson's band struck up " Nearer, My 

 God, to Thee." 



Just as soon as I read the above I wonder- 

 ed if the thoughts suggested by the singing 

 of that beautiful hymn did not send the 

 cold chills down somebody' s back. I sup- 

 pose the thought was that being high up in 

 the air tvas getting nearer to God, especial- 

 ly in that great city of about 2000 saloons; 

 and I am right glad to know there was one 

 aviator who recognized the awful inconsis- 

 tency . for we read : 



Aviator Mars, who has been doing daredevil 

 stunts all his life, is very superstitious. He refused 

 to fly while the band was playing a doleful melody.* 



God bless brother Mars. I hope we may 

 all have a little more of that "superstition," 

 especially when Sunday aviation is going 

 on. It seems, however, that some of the 

 flying-machine speculators felt a little sore 

 because the law would not permit them to 

 charge admission into that inclosure on Sun- 

 day. See the following: 



If the regular rates of admission had been paid at 

 the gate of the aviation field yesterday there would 

 have been more than §^100,000 in the box ofBce. 



Later. — I notice by the Cleveland Plain 

 Dealer that they have just had another si\i- 

 ation on Sunday (or tried to) at Belmont 

 Park, Long Island. I will make just two 

 clippings from the account. The first is a 

 sentence from the opening of a long article: 



There were two sniash-ups, Oct. 23, no flights, and 

 7500 disappointed spectators at the second day of 

 the international aviation meet at Belmont Park, 

 Long Island. 

 And here is the concluding paragraph: 



The Wright team, Hoxsey, Brookins. and John- 

 stone, were all willing and anxious to fly; biit Wil- 

 bur Wright allows none of his machines to go out 



