The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-08-30
A HARD o oursrron.

World It would almost be safe to say that we are almost as far off as ever. notwith4 hnding the many inventions and thousands of years ago. according to the old Greek legends, Daedalus, the Athep- ian. made for himself and his son Icarus. wings which were fastened to their bodies with wax, and with which they flew from Crete across the sea. As the legend has it, Icarus was too venturesome and tried to see how high his wings would carry him. The consequence was that he sailed So near the sun that the wax melted, the wings dropped off and Icarus tumbled into the Egean Sea.
 This is all ancient legend. 1t Is true, but there have been some close limitations of the Icarean episode of late days, as all know who have kept up with the events os late years. We are continually read ing that the problem of aerial travel has beea solved. Almost daily We are told of newly invented airship or some other kind of contrivance, that will really fly. So they will, and so did the wings of Icarrs. but while we are reading of these successful experiments we find inter- spersed among them frequent accounts of an air-vessei which has tumbled to earth, 0. into the sea, and thus ended the ex- pertinent and the life of the experimenter. in many instances. The wax melts of the wings.
 Tho truth of the matter is that no sci- enlist, or anybody else has ever been able to explain all the mysteries of bird flight. Observation and experiment only result in the formation of theories which cannot be verified. As poet says:
 What; a little sassy. chatterin' wren. No biger than my thumb, know more
 than men!"
 It is ust so. The birds know more than men. We watch hawk or buzzard, after 1t has gotten a few hundred feet from the earth, and 1t will sail around in circles, never moving its wings, continu- ally rising higher till it disappears from view We see it every day, know that the bird is moving and rising. with against, or across the air currents, but how is it done? We don't know, and that is all we can say. They have sought out many inventions" said Solomon, and few objects have attracted the inventive powers of humanity more than this When the Psalmist said: "oh, that had the wings of dove.'' he gave expres- sion to desire which is almost unlver. sal. Of John Dryden, Lord Macauly said: His imagination resembled the wings of an ostrich. It enabled him tc l run, though not to soar" We haven't gotten great distance further.
 | There are machine that fly, beyond g | doubt. After fashion they get up into l the air and go somewhere. When w compare one of them with bird it Is | like comparing Stephenson's first locomo tive to an Arabian steed. and If that firs
 its course would have been hardly more cratic and uncertain than is the fiigh
 oi a modern air-ship.
 But dirigible balloons, air-ships ant 1 other aerial vessels are made and do go we will be reminded. Certainly, but witt what results? In 1896 one Lilienthal sailing smoothly only about 100 feet above
 the earth, encountered a change or eros: | current of wind which upset his machine | and sent him to his death. That is no | an uncommon occurrence Sometime!
 the machine bucks, and takes a header
 for the ground or the water. Sometime.
 an unexpected wind current changes tht
 course of the flyer, and it collides witt a tree, a mountain or a steeple. Some
 times the conditions are all favorable ant
 the experiment is a success. As the Aero
 nautical World tersely puts it, 'ft is per
 fectly possible to fly, after fashion, bu
 extremely dangerous" and that abou | sums up the situation. How far are W,
 from fiying?' is a question not yet an
 swered, even approximately. It is a dan gerous game. An accident on a railroad
 or a ship leaves chances for escape, but
 as the old negro said: When a balloon
 bursts, whar is your" That is the. co nundrum. You may be a badly mangle,
 individual. with life in you. or you ma,
 set out on an exploring tour of the un
 known. After all that is said, done an
 attempted. aerial navigation is uncertai
 and dangerous. We do not know that l will ever be different.