DECEMBER 15, 1912 



821 



Kearney, so testified at the inquest to-day of How- 

 ard W. Gill, of Baltimore, who was killed at the 

 aviation meet at Cicero last Saturday, when his 

 biplane collided in the air with a monoplane driven 

 by George Mestach, a French aviator. 



"Gill told me before he went into the air on 

 the day of his death that he was displeased with the 

 way the meet was being conducted," said Pickens. 

 " 'I don't like this idea of flying at twilight,' Gill 

 told me. 



"Gill was nervous before he started. He went 

 up only after the officials insisted the meet would 

 be a failure if the crowds were disappointed. Mes- 

 tach is not to blame for the accident. In fact, 

 I don't believe either aviator was." 



The .testimony of George Mestach, the French 

 aviator, with whose monoplane Gill's biplane col- 

 lided, resulting in Gill's death, was to the effect 

 that he protested against going up. 



"I protested to the Aero Club of Illinois against 

 flying in the approaching darkness," he said, "but 

 they insisted I should fly because the crowd would 

 be disappointed if I did not. 



"I consented to go up only after officials had 

 promised that my machine would be the only one 

 in the air," Mestach continued. "They didn't keep 

 their promise. Two biplanes continued to race, and, 

 instead of keeping close to the ground, where they 

 were supposed to remain, they climbed. I was go- 

 ing at terrific speed when I saw one of them about 

 300 feet ahead of me. I tried to avoid a collision, 

 but it was impossible." 



William Burns, of Dayton, Ohio, who served as 



Gill's mechanician, testified that Gill had protested 

 that it was too dark to race, and expressed fear 

 that an accident would result with so many ma- 

 chines in the air. 



The above condition of things brings to 

 mind the point in Chatin's address. in our 

 issue for Nov. 1. The voice of the people, 

 or I might say the voice of the majority, 

 was wrong — entirely wrong. That "howling 

 mob," as we might call it, was guilty of 

 murder when it insisted that the aviator 

 should make a flight in spite of his protest. 

 Somewhere out west we had a similar oc- 

 currence. A young boy who had not had 

 very much experience in aviation protested 

 that the wind was too violent, and said he 

 could not fly, and knew he couldn't, and 

 did not dare to try. Finally, provoked by 

 the unreasonable taunts, he replied as fol- 

 lows : "Well, if you insist on it I will 

 fly, even if it breaks my neck." And it 

 (lid break his neck. If that comes under 

 the head of "local option" T want to say 

 I am not in favor of submitting such ques- 

 tions to a crowd of hoodlums, and I never 

 was. 



High-pressure Gardening 



MiT APPLE STORY. 



May the Lord be praised for ajDples ! and 

 may he be especially praised for the boun- 

 tiful crop of apples that he has seen fit to 

 give us tliis present year. In the Cleveland 

 markets good apples are offered as low as 

 40 cts. a bushel ; and, so far as I can learn, 

 they are plentiful almost everywhere. 

 Probably thousands if not millions of bush- 

 els will go to waste because there seems to 

 be no market for them in many places. 

 We hope the new parcels post will open a 

 short cut between producer and consumer, 

 and give the children, at least, everywhere 

 an abundance of ajoples — red, "rosy-cheek- 

 ed apples" — as well as those of other kinds. 



Apples are still my only food for the 

 last meal in the day. Sometimes I do take 

 a little bit of cheese along with my fruit, 

 for I have been all my life in the habit of 

 using cheese with fruit, espejially tart fruit. 



Now, I have made some important "dis- 

 coveries" during the past season in regard 

 to apples — at least they are important to 

 me, and I hope they may be helpful to 

 others. When we first moved on to our 

 new premises 32 years ago, for a little time 

 T was too busy to plant fruit-trees. Final- 

 ly a tree agent came along and said he had 

 been delivering fruit-trees to the farmers, 

 but tliere were about a dozen trees left. 

 The man who ordei'ed them was so far 



away that he could not very well go after 

 him; and he said I might have the lot for 

 a very small price — I think something like 

 ten cents each. Well, we jjlanted them out 

 along where we proposed to have a drive- 

 way from the main road to the barn. It 

 took about twelve trees. After they had 

 begun bearing I sent specimens to the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, and they gave me 

 their names. I wonder if everybody knows 

 that our DeiJartment of Agi'iculture will 

 not only name your apples on receipt of 

 samples, but they will pay all postage. 

 Address the Pomologieal Department of 

 Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 



This row of trees was pretty close to the 

 highway. The two first were Coeklin's Fa- 

 vorite. When the trees began to bear, the 

 apples were so puckery and tasteless that 

 I wondered for quite a time why anybody 

 should call them a "favorite." But we soon 

 found out that, after they had become ripe 

 and mellow, they had lost their puckery 

 taste, were full of juice, and had a pecul- 

 iar delicious flavor, something like a very 

 ripe pineapple. Another reason why we 

 did not ai^preeiate the Coeklin's Favorite 

 was that the two trees were allowed to 

 overbear, and consequently a great part of 

 them were small and gnarly. After two 

 or three years I began to discover what 

 severe \ runing will do. Last spring we 



