The St. Louis Republic., 1904-06-30
Santos-Dumont Hopeful That
Necessary Repairs May Be
&aGe in Two Months.
BELIEVES CRANK WAS VANDkL..
AerOnaut Refuses Exposition OF
fer to Exhibit Mutilated En-
velope as Compensation for
LOss-Assistants Remain.

santosDumont yesterday refused to dig
nifty the imputation that he or anyone
associated with him had any connection
with the destruction of his airship, Santos
Dumont No. Z
Il am going out TO dine with Cardinal
Satolli and NJ Boeufvc. the French Com
missioner to the Exposition" said he. last
night. Il cannot consider 80 contemplate
an insinuation."
Santos-Dumont was in his apartments at
the Hamilton Hotel preparing for dinner
He was affable and philosophical in his
mental bearing, but dismissed the lnsinua-
tion that mis- attendants had any connec-
ton with the vandalism with word and
a gesture which served at the same time
TO discard his finished cigarette.
MY men have never left the house at
night. At the conclusion of my last prize
contest l gave them each $1,000 bonus, in
addition to their salary. / should have,
done the same here. and win when have
completed my race. They know this
What object could they have in destroy
ing the means of their winning this
money II, Is ridiculous and absurd
antos-Dumont said &hat he hoped to be
aDle 10 leave st. Louis for Paris to-day,
put that would depend upon whether he
would be able to have the mutilated bag
time. --i
ATTENDANTS REMAIN HERE.
I shall leave my two attendants here
at the Hamilton Hotel" said he, until 1
return. hope to get back here within
two months and possibly within six weeks.
1t all depends upon how long il may re-
quire to repair the damage. You see the
Ddg Is made up OF many squares, and
wherever the knife has cut across one
seam a new square will have to be maze
ana then all sewed together again. l can
not tell how long II may take to do this.
Inc SILK itself / can only secure in Paris
ana the work will have to be done there.
Ihe Exposition management has been
very kind, 1t has been said that l had
some motive in the way Of securing a
concession. To show how far from the
truth that is, l may say that the officers
OF the Exposition this afternoon kindly
asked me If l would not like to exhibit
the mutilated airship at an admission .
price. and offered me a bonus besides !
appreciated the courtesy of this offer as
compensation, but said: have brought
the airship here to win this prize. and no
one viii see it until l have made my eff J
fort to secure that prize -
Santos-Dumont added that the slashes }
made in the airship We're more serious
than those made in England. because in /
the former case the bag had been un- /
through single folds only. In this case the |
knife cut through a number Of folds at |
every thrust. so that there were probably !
q hundfed perforati1ns.
SUSPECTS A CRANK
I have but one theory to work upon" |
said the aeronaut, both as to what has |
occurred here and in London That is |
that the vandalism was the work of an \
airship crank, a man who thinks that to- |
morrow the millionaire angel will come |
to his aid and supply him the money to |
work out his theory
He thinks that an airship may be built |
In day If he only had the funds to carry |
out his theories. He is a crank, but like /
all cranks, firmly believes that his the
ories are correct, and he evidently hoped |
TO postpone the day Of the trial here in
order that someone might at the last mo-
ment come to his aid and make him ia
nous.
The idea that it requires months of
work by the finest mechanics to perfect /
the mechanism of an airship never occurs
to him. He thinks IL can all be done to-
morrow, for he never got beyond the /
les"
W. F. Williamson, manager of the Ham
tlton Hotel said that no night since their
arrival in the hotel had Santos Dumont |
or his two mechanical assistants left the
house after dark
1.-The men cannot speak English. They
could not find their way across the street
without guide. The idea that they had |
anything to do with this thing is impossi-
ble, as / positively know they could not
have left the hotel. Santos-Dumont has
arranged for their stay here until his re-
turn
SECRETARY SHAW TELEGRAPHs.
Santos-Dumont received the following
telegram from Secretary of the Treasury
Shaw: Very sorry to hear of your
trouble. The dispatch was addressed to
Inc aeronaut in care of President Fran
els, and was delivered when Santos-Du-
mont visited the aerodrome.
Doctor Lopez Goncalves Of Brazil. the
official representative of the Amazon Gov
errment at the St. Louis Exposition. who
is in New York, was surprised and indig-
nant yesterday when he learned of the
Il n n 7 mont II
egraphed the following:
In my name and that of the Amazon
Government and people. whom ] represent
at the st. Louis Exposition, sincerely re-
gret the act Of savagery of which you
have been a victim. with a view of dis
abling you for the contest"
Doctor Concalves will come to St. I.ouis
in few days.
Charles F. Morrison, who was arrested
tuesday night at the Worlds Fair on
suspicion of knowing something about the
cutting early Tuesday morning of the air
ship SantoS-Dumont No. T. was released |
yesterday by the police at the Worlds
Fair as he could not be implicated in the
outrage.
Vincent Gillian. the Jefferson Guard on
watch az the aerodrome during the second
relief. when the cutting is thought to have
been done. is no longer connected with |
the guard, his connection terminating yes
terday.
The injury to the airship balloon did not
put stop TO work on the aerodrome and
an Gay, Yesterday workmen were bus1y
SAStABeu III -uSillHE II 10 complexion. |
WOMAN TO MAKE ASCENSION.
Notwithstanding the enforced withdraw
II of the Brazilian star aeronaut from the
proposed Fourth Of July airship ascension
there will be a balloon ascension OF the
regulation old-time kind on that day at
the Worlds Fair
Mrs. Carl F Meyers, the wife ol the
Of aerouautiCs, and herself
an expert navigator of the upper currents
Will go up in a balloon on that day She
will use for her trip one of the balloons
rom her husbands famous balloon
farm' in New York State.
The gas envelope of the Santos-Dumont
NO. Z, which was so completely hacked
up Tuesday morning, was packed in Its
enormous crate yesterday morning to be
reshipped to Paris. where the owner will
have II repaired. preparatory to fight in
81. Louis in the aeronautic events
Yesterday brought out no new develop
nents in the case. A report on the slash
,ng ,lg OF the gas bag was received by Presi-
lent Francis yesterday from Colonel
kingsbury, Commandant of the Jefferson
Guard.
The report was written Tuesday night
and was a lengthy document, giving a
complete resume of the circumstances of |
Known to the authorities, all of which has
beer. published, but shed no light on the
lrthorS OF the outrage, and contained no !
1ews 20 the identity Of the criminals
It tells Of the appearance of rnysteri- (
JUS individual about the aerodroine at ! |
0,45 Tuesday night. who tried to enter the
structure. stating that he was interested
n a1rships and wished to see the manager
This is supposed to be Charles F. Nor
.isson, whose arrest Tuesday night was 1
'ollowed by his release yesterday. The I
-ents IN the balloon. the report states,