HOME OF THE TURKEY BUZZARD 



By CARL E. ACKERMAN 



N the literature of 

 my early youth, ob- 

 tained through the 

 expenditure of five 

 and ten-cent pieces, 

 there entered a 

 character by name, 

 Frank Reade. This 



man was a genius, 

 who long before the 

 days of the first 

 successful automo- 

 bile, constructed a wagon pro- 

 pelled by power. He invent- p -- 

 ed many strange and wonder- 

 ful machines with which he 

 toured the wide, wide world, 

 rescuing beautiful maidens in 

 distress, exterminated bands of 

 painted savages about to as- 

 sassinate helpless settlers, 

 slaughtered hordes of wild 

 beasts, and, with it all, pro- 

 duced a new machine each 

 week with which to delight 

 and thrill his readers. 



In the early part of one of 

 the stories Frank Reade's 

 family became greatly alarmed 

 because of the strange actions 

 of the marvellous inventor. 

 Day after day he was to be 

 found back of the barn, study- 

 ing the flight of numberless 

 turkey buzzards circling in 

 the sky. The family, how- 

 ever, in the course of time, 

 were greatly relieved to learn 

 that the apparent queerness 

 in the inventor was due solely 

 to his desire to learn the 

 method with which the birds 

 sailed through the air so that he might 

 apply the principle to his new air ship. 

 The story made a tremendous im 



removing the old pair of field glasses 

 which hung near my father's desk, I 

 retired to the back of our barn and pro- 

 ceeded to look for turkey buzzards. 

 Strange to say, there were several in 

 the air, and, resting the heavy pair of 

 glasses on one of the rails of an old 

 fence, I followed their movements with- 

 out fatigue for an hour. 



Suddenly I felt a tap on the shoulder. 

 Turning I saw my aunt, who was spend- 

 ing a few days on the plantation. She 



Cluster on nearby trees 



rapped me on the bare head with her 

 lorgnette and asked me what I was do- 

 ing. In rather a pompous tone I told 

 pression upon me and surreptitiously her I was studying the buzzards. She 



