The Jasper news. [volume] (Jasper, Missouri) 1898-1924, 1908-11-26
money and bonds, snd he made people
LII. |.

think he owned mort of America.
Pa asked me how the people at
home looked upon his absence, and II
they advanced any theories as to the
cause of his being abroad, and l told
him that everybody from the presi.
dent down to Rockefeller knew about
what he was out looking after, and
that when l left Bob Evans at Fort
ress Monroe, he told me to tell Pa
to send mess Of airships to him so
he would meet them when he got to
San Francisco, as he wanted to
paralyze the Japs if they got busy
around the fleet, which pleased Pa, and
he said: Just tell the people to wait,
and l will produce airships that can
fight battles in the clouds, but 1t will
take time"
Then we went out in the country
about dozen miles, and met the in
ventor and his wife, and the inventor
filled big balloon that looked like
a weiner sausage, with gas that he
made over fire out in field, and the
inventor and got on bamboo frame
under the. balloon, and he turned on
the gasoline that runs the wheel fol
tseering, and they cut her loose and
we went up about SO feet and sailed
around the country half mile eth
er way and watched Pa and the wife
of the inventor as they sat under a
tree and talked politics.
We came back after a while and Pa
was proud of me for having so much
nerve, and told him the government
at home was complaining because Pa
didn't go up in the airships, cause
they said he couldn't buy airships in
telligently unless he tried them out,
and that If he didn't look out they
would send some expert out to take
his place and spend the money, and as
we were landed on the ground l dared
Pa to get on the frame and go up with
us for little spin, and he was afraid
the woman would think he was a cow
ard If he didn't, so he got up and
straddled the ridge pole of the bam-
boo frame, and said he would take
whirl at 1t II it killed him. The bal
loon thing couldn't quite lift all of us,
so l got off and give her lift, and
up she went with the inventor steer
ing, and Pa hanging on for dear life
and saying: Now l lay me down to
Sleep
l have seen some scared men in my
life, but when the machine got up
about as high as house, so Pa could
not get off, and the woman waved
handkerchief at Pa, he swallowed his
Adams apple and said: Let her go
Gallagher" and Gallagher, the French.
man, let her go.
Well, you'd died to see the thing
wobble and see Pa cling on with his
feet and hands. For about a quarter
of mile she went queer, like a duck
that has been wing-tipped, and then
she began to descend.
First she passed over lot of cows
that women were milking, and the
cows stampeded one way and the
women the other way, and the WON,
en- were scared more than the cows,
cause when they got out from under
the ship they prayed, but the cows
didn't.
Then the ship struck a field where
about 40 women were piling onions on
the ground, and 1t just scattered wom-
en- and onions all over the field, and
of all the yelling you ever heard that
was the worst.
Pa yelled to them that If he ever
got off that hay rack alive he would
pay the damages, and they thought he
was swearing at them. Then the
worst thing possible happened. The
airship went up over a tree, and Pa
was scared and he grabbed limb and
let go of the bamboo, and there he
was in the top of a thornapple tree.
The balloon went over all right, and
the inventor steered it away to where
it started from, and the woman and l
watched Pa. The thorns were about
two inches long and more than hun
dred of them got into Pa and he yelled
en- who owned the COWS and onions
the ship had wrecked surrounded the
tree with hoes and rakes and pitch.
forks, and they made such frantic
noise that Pa did not dare to come
down out of the tree. So Pa told us
to take the train back to Paris and
send the American consul and the pc.
lice and hook and ladder company
to get him down and protect him.
l told Pa didn't want to go off and
leave him to be killed by strange wom-
en-, and maybe eaten by wolves before
morning. but he said: Don't talk
back to me, you go and send that pa
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