Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-03-14

W. ilJ III OOulSt SOu ndNS1 ana VI
course you all know, too, that this kite
flying has been a very important fea-
ture in our scientific progress. All of
you boys and girls who have been to
school even a little while remember
about Benjamin Franklin and his cleo
trical experiments which were first
suggested by the electricity which
came down the string of kite.
And even if you have not studied
about 1t in school, you all know that
the same principle which sustains
kite in the air and makes it soar high
er and higher in the wind. is the prin-
cipal upon which our aerial naviga-
tors are now at work.
Consequently each one of the boys
and girls who discovers some new
shaped kite which apparently floats
better. or some material which is both
light in weight and touch in fiber, may
do something which will eventually
further the cause of the airship.
Public school teachers and men who
keep abreast of affairs have been en-
couraging you school boys and girls
in this field for the past two or three
years; now 1 hope that a great many
of you will write letters to me telling
about your experience, be they sue
cessful or failures. Tell about making
a kite and about flying it. What is
the best style for the different kinds
of contests which the schools hold later
sx, h. Oh, fhsa
tails be in proportion to the kite?
remember calling upon a friend in
Boyle Heights last year and finding
her quite distracted because both of
her children wanted kites and she did
not know how to make them and had
been unable to find any book giving
proper description. Here is chance
for some of our bright boys. 1 would
like particularly to hear from the boys
who have won prizes at the contests
for kite flying, and I hope that each
girl whose brother owns a kite will
write her own description of what she
thinks about the sport. l know that
many of the girls enjoy it quite as
we'll as their brothers and even if they
do not own kite themselves they may
tell something of the tumult when
brother builds his kite. Or they may
tell of the excitement which reigned
among the childreneof the neighbor-
hood when some particularly big kite
got caught in the high branches of
magnificent palm or pepper tree and all
the step-ladders in the block were
brought into use, as well as the rakes
and long poles, to get it loose from the
entangling branches.
The pictures this week are upon an
easy subject and 1 hope a great many
of you will have some of your little
friends pose in their gardening cos
tune so that the drawings will be
true to life. A good many of the chill
dren complained about the topic, "a
Day at the Beach, because they could
not get to the beach and it was so hard
to get the water right. 1 will try
to use more foresight in giving out
subjects for these drawing contests
after this and take those which you
can easily have posed at home.
Your letters concerning the pur-
chases We're in the main very good, al
though the display of imaginative
power was not always as vivid as
would have wished. However, you are
all improving in this respect and now
that you have got beyond the dream
stories you will improve rapidly.
I hope that you will always remem-
Der to let these stories be entirely or
iginal and not copy even your ideas
from story books you have read. 1t is
not sufficient to use your own words,
you know, l want your own ideas, too,
and if you give them chance the ease
with which they come will surprise
you.
with love IN Won all