The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1908-05-26

|
ventors. Accordingly l was enter
tanned with the most wonderful
tales. At last | had reached folks
who had actually seen it. And these
live savers or time killers told me
about it, what was, what had been
and what was going to be, not go
ing it particularly strong, however,
OH the last, for they had little ina
gination, in spite of their intimate
association with the mystic and ma
jcstiC sea. One Of these fellows
showed me a picture Of the machine
i'll flight in a New York paper,
which by some wonderful, incxplica
bic process, had been blown across
the wide eNpansc Of water, shifting
sand dunes and a still wider cxpansc
of ignorance.
"Thars the picturc," said he.
"Ihc fellow sho got a good un."
1t was an excellent picture in
deed. and as | was admiring it and
cnvying the luck OF the man who
had managed to take such a perfect
photograph, asked, "Whcn was
this picture taken ,"
"ThurSday,' he replied
"Why, the papers dated Thurs
day." said.
"That don't make no difference"
he he said. "That ar picture WIZ TUX
Thursday. cause THURSDAYS the
only time thar WIZ two men in the
machine. and the picture has two
in it."
SO he had figured it out. And
quickly figured it out that the mag
nilccnt picture marked "photo-
graph Of the Wright Brothers
Acroplanc in Flight was a pure
fake. 1t would have taken twc
whole days to get picture from
there to New York. and two more
days to get the paper back.
At the hotel in Mantco met a
whole bunch Of newspaper men
from Norfolk, Washington, New
York, London. On the dav Of tho
flight the woods were full Of them
the woods far away from the canC
and from the big sand dune. Not
one Of these newspaper men saw
the machine fall, though they al
saw it fly. Some Of the widest &C
counts had been printed in some Of
the papers about this flying per.
forn1ancc. A Norfolk paper print.
ed a story that the \Vrights had
taken a flight of 10 miles out over
the sea. The same paper after the
accident said that the Wrights had
cut their machine up into unrecOg-
nzablc Splintcrs to preserve their
secret. The newspaper men who saw
1t were at least quarter Of mile
away. 1t is but ust to those who
did see it and to the profession gen
orally to say that Norfolk paper die
not have man ON the scene at ali
and the absurd stories were evident
~ written by some expert think-ar-
tiSt in the home office. Other wild
stories were printed in other pa
pcrS.
The Wright brothers would moi
operate their machine when any
newspaper men were present. In or
der to sec it, they had to stand a far
off, and many humorous accounts OF
their experiences were related
Some Of these experiences were not
quite SO humorous, though. at tho
time, such as getting blistcrcd in the
sun. Skinning their shins climbing
trees. making close acquaintance
with the cntcrprising and diStin-
GulShcI MIR. Chigoc. who inhabits
the little patches Of woods all
through this country. They saw tn,
long Gc c!nt-mile flight, though. and
they learned from a reliable source
through man who was there at the
time that one of the Wrights press.
ed the wrong lever Of the steering
apparatus. causing the machine tC
shoot down instead Of up. 1t shot
into the sand, and as the speed was
something like a mile minute
great was the fall thereof.
The flying machine consists OF
two horizontal oblong discs. or
planes, 10 feet long. six and hall
feet wide. \ propeller is in the
rear, run by a gasoline engine set
between the discs or planes. There
IS i'll :angcmcnt to steer by rails
'r% ol lowering the edges of the
planes, AID by shifting the direction