JUNE 15, 1912 



385 



(DqD[P ffiJODDD 



A. I. Root. 



The Lord gave, and the Lord liath taken away. 

 Blessed be the name of tre Lord. — JOB 1 :21. 



Buy the truth, and sell it not ; yea, wisdom and 

 instruction and understanding. — Peov. 23:23. 



He will not always chide; neither will he keep 

 his anger for ever. — Psalm 103:9. 



DEATH OF WILBUR WRIGHT, THE OLDER OF 

 THE WRIGHT BROTHERS, OF DAYTON, OHIO. 



For the past half-dozen years or so the 

 whole wide world has been discussing and 

 reading in regard to the Wright brothers 

 (and their flying-machines) more than, i3er- 

 haps, any other two people on the face of 

 the earth. In every clime and in every lan- 

 guage jieople have been eager to learn all 

 about the two young men who have suc- 

 ceeded for the first time in human history 

 in making a machine that would fly, and 

 carry passengers, purely by mechanical 

 means without the aid of a balloon or any 

 thing of the sort. In the March 1st issue 

 of Gleanings for 1904 I first made men- 

 tion of the two men, Orville and Wilbur 

 Wright. It was in the fall and winter of 

 1903 that they first succeeded in applying 

 a gasoline-engine to a gliding machine they 

 had been experimenting with. In the sum- 

 mer of 1904 I wrote the Wrights, asking 

 permission to pay them a visit and witness 

 some of their experiments. This permis- 

 sion was kindly granted; but they prefer- 

 red that I should make no mention through 

 our journal of what I might see until later 

 on. I made many visits to the field just 

 outside of Dayton, where they were experi- 

 menting during the summer of 1904; and 

 finally, in our issue for Jan. 1, 1905, I was 

 given permission to write up what I had 

 witnessed, this being the first detailed ac- 

 count, if I am correct, given in any period- 

 ical in the world of the experiments and 

 final success of the Wright brothers. 



It was my privilege to be joresent when 

 they made their first flight of a mile or 

 more, and turned a circle and came down 

 to the place of starting. My write-up of 

 the event was so astonishing that many peo- 

 ple thought it was a piece of fiction to ad- 

 vertise our journal; and even so good an 

 authority as the Scientific American did 

 not see fit to credit my account, although 

 afterward they ajDologized for their want 

 of faith at first, in my plain and simple 

 story. 



In times past it has been my good fortune 

 to become more or less intimately acquaint- 

 ed with some of God's noble men and wom- 

 en; and I shall always regard it as one of 

 the privileges of my life that I was permit- 



ted to become intimately acquainted with 

 these two great characters (and I might say 

 benefactors) of the human race. Wilbur 

 Wright, the elder, was a little peculiar. 

 Usually he was rather quiet and taciturn; 

 but when he got agoing he was quite a 

 talker. There was a peculiar twinkle in his 

 eye, and an expressive working of the mus- 

 cles of his face when a new idea occurred 

 to him or when he had something pleasant 

 to tell. Wliile the two men worked togeth- 

 er in perfect harmony, they often had lively 

 discussions. Sometimes, one would think 

 these discussions were becoming pretty 

 nearly heated ones; but all of a sudden 

 they would both stop and pitch into the 

 work, and perhaps in a little wliile demon- 

 strate ivJio was right and who was wrong. 

 As Wilbur was the older of the two, for 

 a time he seemed to do rather more flying 

 than his brother Orville. I once asked their 

 assistant mechanic which one of the two, in 

 his opinion, was the more expert. He said 

 he could not tell — sometimes one and some- 

 times the other. They first made quite a 

 good many experiments by simply flying 

 ahead in a straight line. Then the machine 

 at that stage of the invention had to be 

 wheeled back to the starting-i^lace by hand. 

 One day I came on the ground just as they 

 had succeeded in making it turn a curve so 

 as to fly at right angles to its course. They 

 were getting ready to make another at- 

 tempt; but a thunder cloud loomed up in 

 the west, and they were about to abandon 

 the experiment for the time being. As ev- 

 ery thing was all ready for another flight 

 I took the liberty of suggesting that they 

 would have plenty of time to get around 

 and get the machine safely housed before 

 the blow would come up. In thinking of it 

 since, I have considered that it was rather 

 presuming on my part for me, an outsider, 

 to offer such advice. Finally Wilbur, who 

 was, I think, rather more venturesome than 

 his brother, said he was ready to try it, and 

 accordingly they started off rathe f hurried- 

 ly. Wilbur turned the curve at the end of 

 the field, as before, and turned still anotli- 

 er curve, and came around to the siarting- 

 place, where we expected him to alight; 

 but to our great surprise and astonishment 

 he went right on, over our heads, and was 

 heading for a lot of telephone vires, thorn 

 trees, etc. The other brother, the mechanic, 

 and myself, were greatly alarmed. It was 

 so long ago that I can not exactly recall the 

 details; but for a time it seemed to us he 



