The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-07-08
AEROPLANITIS.
Everybody Is willing To Watch and
See the Wrights Try.

Il see tne NT1RntS Try
| Aeroplantis thrives and increas-
es, says Washington despatch, in
| spite of the shrivelling sunshine and
| choking dust of the Fort Myer par
ade ground where the Wright bro
| theirs are making their flights. SEN
ators whose temperaments are anti
podal to that commonly described as
Gallo forsake the chamber and
| trudge patiently out into the UNI
sheltered expanse of field where the
sun beats mercilessly down upon
them, to see the machine soar.
1t is pernicious fever. 1t lays it's
grip stealthily. And its progress is
not simulated or encouraged by
either of the Wright brothers. II
doesn't make any difference whe-
Their one or four or five thousand
people are waiting to see them fly.
They sit in their machine shed, each
chewing blade of timothy and dis
| playing as much energy as a night
Waterman. The crowd may fume
and sweat and mop it's face and
wonder where there is a drink of
water but the Wright brothers are
not subject to such Witching Hour
influences.
If you happen to be one of the
sweating multitude and given to
strong language you probably let
| go of several yards excoriating your
self for having come several hot
| miles and stood in the dust and sun
with the net result of seeing Orville
chew a blade of grass. You don't
| blame the aviators. You feel that
| you are the goat. They don't tell
| you where or when or how. If the
wind is right and the engine is
working and several other condi-
tions are propitious they'll try-try
mind you, not fiy-so you turn loose
on the weather, and watch the
thermometer on the roof Of the shed
whirl in the breeze. And then
when you've cussed everything you
can think of and have sweat pessi-
mism at the pores and are able to
prove to your own satisfaction that
the aeroplane is not worth a hang
and never will be, six signal corps
men come out of their corners, Will
bur thinkers around like a man try
ing to repair trunk with a table
knife and they put the thing on two
old pony wheels and trundle it slow
ly up to the derrick where the
starting weight is suspended. That's
the trouble with the outfit. It's AMI
ateurish. They haven't got any
tools; there's no snap about them.
And that man Wright, Wilbur, the
long lanky one, wears a derby hat in
the broiling sun with the thermom-
eter at 100. Why can't he get a
straw hat anyway?
Wilbur tinkers around again and
waits. Then Orville strolls up and
tinkers around and they both wait
some more. Then Taylor. their
mechanician, strolls down to the
shed about four hundred yards
away to get a screw driver. Orville
follows him and brings back bit
of rope. All this time your dinner is
getting cold, and you are wishing
you had called up your wife to tell
her you wouldn't be home in time
and wondering how you will square
yourself when you do get there. At
last they start the engine. It's GU
rious sound and there's quite a
breeze shooting out from behind.
! Then they hoist the weight and Or
vile climbs into the little two by
four inch seat in the middle of the
lower plane forward.
Then some one tells you it takes
nerve for man to start out in
new machine from the very spot
where he nearly killed himself last
fall. Then somebody else tells you
the same thing. Then everybody
who isn't telling somebody else tells
it to you again. And you don't care
what they tell you. Wilbur takes
his place at one corner with his
hand on the plane. The machine
starts forward for all the world like
a pelican running across a barn
yard with outstretched wings, even
though they don't keep pelicans in
harm wards and il glideS along Just
above the ground trying to mount
into the air. If it comes down with
a bump in a cloud of yellow dust
500 yards away, you don't care. It's
a wonderful thing, an amazing
thing, and that must have been an
awful bump that Orville got when
she came down, and are they going
to try it again?