Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-12-25

notable year. Things have happcne
in 1909 Discoveries that thrill th
souls of men around the sphere hav
been made. Invention. which I'm itse
is discovery. has gone forward wit
seven league strides. Death, slingfn
its darts every year, hit shining mark
in 1909
The year 1909 has been called 9Th
year OF genius" because so many me
Of worldwide fame were born thereir
This year, exnctly q century later, ma
be termed tho year OF achievement
To all time this year will be know
as the one in which the north pole wa
reached-or discovered" II you ik
that better. Possibly the pole wa
reached in 1908. but that remains to b.
proved Nobody doubts that Com
mander Robert p. Peary of the United
States navy actually arrived at thu
pole on April 6. 1909. as he announced
to the world on the 7th day of Septem-
Der. Si- days prior to that date DR.
Frederick A. Cook OF Brooklyn ha6
sent down from the frozen north 6
message that vibratcd around the
globe. He said he had reached the
pole on April 81. 1908. Whether DIR
Cook got there OF not, the fact remains
that the year 1909 has the imperlshable
honor of announcing the conquerIng OF
the worlds top.
But let us not permit this prcdomi-
nant pole talk to obscure other super
lative affairs OF 1909. There's no use
going up In the air over the north pole
controversy and proclaiming 1t as the
one and only matter of universal mo-
ment in 1909 when aviators this same
year have gone up in the air literally
and made the aeroplane thing of ac-
tual use.
Man Flies Across Channel.
Let 1t be not forgotten-it cannot be,
for that matter-that on the 25th of
July. 1903. A D.. a Frenchman named
Louis Blerlot. man bird, person of
daredevil nerve. fearless argonaut of
the atmosphere. arose from the ground
at Calais in an aeroplane and flew
across the English channel to the chalk
cliffs Of Dover. making the distance of
twenty-one miles IN forty minutes.
beating the steamboat time between
France and England by ten minutes.
Even Napoleon Bonaparte could not
get across to England for all his con-
quering legions. yet this Frenchman of
1909. ignoring utterly all accepted and
approved methods of transportation,
made heroic conquest of the inviolable
air and shot himself by whlrring motor
across the channel
This was one OF The years achieve
ments that make II epochal Bleriot
proved tina the aeroplane. a craft
heavier than air. can sustain Itself In
aerial flight above an ocean roadway
and make safe landing on the other
side. Swimming the English channel,
for many years proclaimed as a feat to
be featured in nearly every newspaper
throughout the world has taken its
place among the back numbered things.
Bleriot has flown across the channel,
The achievement of this man five
months ago belongs to the centuries.
what has been done once can be done
again. The aeropla1e is advancing.
The Wright brothers, pioneers in avia-
ton. have performed marvels In 1909
Their aviation work in Europe and
America has attained IN this year a
height of excellence never reached be-
fore. They. too. could fly across the
channel If they cared to do so, but
these Americans are not spectacularly
inclined. They are thorou, hbred dew
otees to the science of aviation. labor
ing assiduously to develop the aero
plane into thing OF practical value.
Work Of she Wriehts.
The Wrlghts care little for record
breaking. They care much for making
their mechanism available for actual
use In transportation. What they have
oone this year Is an earnest Of future
achievement. They have demonstrated
conclusively, beyond cavil, beyond per-
adventure of doubt, that tho air Is
navigable by heavier than air craft.
Much remains to be done, but the
Wrights and other ayiators have
SHOWN this year that the dream of GEN.
turtles Is upon the very eve OF fulfill
ment. Those who laughed last year
nave hurrahed this year. Aviation
takes its place in 1909 among the ex-
act sciences.
Many OF US while we discuss the ab
sorbing question. did Cook beat Pearv
10 the pole or is he the most gigantic
1alee OF the ages7" have paused to ac-
knowledge to our own consciousnesaca
that the discovery of the worlds nm
per apex Is really OF no value to the
worlds inhabitants 1t was known
last year and all the years before that
the north pole is in the place where n
is, wherever that may be, and the fact
'nat one or two men have "got there"
at last is immaterial so far as tbe
pread question Is concerned Tho dis
covery of the pole bal1es no biscuits
for hungry mouths. Acroplanism as
exemplified by Orville and Wilbur
Wright, by Louis Bleriot. by Glenn II
Curtiss and others who have achieved
things therein this year promises in
time to become of very great practical
value 10 the round wide world OF hu-
man beings.
Standing out as mountain peaks
from the plains of the twelvemonth arc
these two things. the north pole news
and the advance in aviation. but the
year has given us from month TO
month many other things of interest
not TO be slurred over in passing.
Tho death list of 1909 Is notable. A
great poet, great novelist a great
preacher. great general and great
editor have died. These are. in tho
order indicated. Algernon Charles
Swinburne. George Meredith, Edward
Everett Hale. General Oliver Otis
Howard and Richard Watson Glider.
Death of Swinburne.
Swinburne was first of these to pass.
He died April 10 at his home. Putney.
England. at the age of seventy-two
One of the strangest of human mortals
was Swinburne. Understood, red haired
unhandsome. he passed his long life as
recluse. never marrying. His bride
was Poesy. espoused in early youth.
Before he grew his struggling red
whiskers he looked like troubadour