The log cabin Democrat., 1909-11-02
FROM AUTO TO AERO
A Modern Tragedy of Upper Cloudland

W ell, I've got new aero car, said Cans, boyishly to his wife when he came home one evening.
 "No!" said Mrs. Cans under her breath. You really haven't, Edgar
 "I really have. Traded my motor car in on the deal. too. The aero car cost me $20000 altogether. The best the Aerial Navigation Company would 1 allow me on the motor car was $2O0 Think of it. And Tve seen the time motor car like that was worth $700O"
 But" ventured Mrs. Cans, aero motoring. or whatever you may call it, ] is dangerous, 1 don't care what they say to the contrary. Your auto was per ectly beautiful and We had such splendid times in it."
 Well" replied Cans in defense, T l hope you didn't want me to continue i in the. ranks of the ancient? Why, every time l took that auto out l couldn't help feeling embarrassed No matter if 1t was the very last thing in auto making, I was a back number nevertheless. If l dared to speed little l was continually lodging men, women. children, dogs chickens, pc licemen and constables. With an aero car 1 can scorch around in the empyrean blue with nothing but clouds in the way. And running through towering piles of cumulus is all the craze i'll aero clubs now"
 From a motor car to an aero car was q transition as abrupt as it was far, and Mrs. Cans was apprehensive, notwithstanding this glowing picture. She was apprehensiye because she knew Cans much more intimately than he knew himself. She knew him well enough to know about what he would do under any given circum- stance.
 Cans had been the automobile tiend of his set He had spent more time in and under automobiles than any other man he knew. Motoring had been meat and drink to him.
 For his aero car Cans had tent erected on the best part of his lawn. He took daily lessons from the agent of the Aerial Navigation Company i That genial genius, whose tongue would have been worth about $l0 a minute in a presidential campaign, took Cans on short, low trips at first; then gradually extended them to greater heights and distances, until the new owner had his nerve and a knowledge of the machinery of his 1 purchase
 The day Cans took his first trip 1 alone was the first day he really lived. 1 He sped up to a dizzy height, then circled about, lowering, birdlike. above | the landscape. while Mrs. Cans, below, gazed at him in Open-mouthed wonder. 1 This is the long-lost source of 1 youth," declared Cans when he alight- 1 ed from his car It's simply great to 1 scorch up and down the enyirons Of i heaven. Remember what l say, the aviator will take the place of the doc | You must go with me tomorrow. Car rie"
 But" said Carrie. "I'ye never set foot in the air in my life and I would be horribly afraid"
 Pooh, Not a bit of danger" Cans assured her. Fact is, there's not as much danger up there in that aero car as there is down here in an old-fogy | auto Anyhow. you'd be safe with me. You'd be safe anywhere with mel
 After the first shock of dizzy nerv- ousness Mrs. Cans began to take an interest She was feeling that after a few more ascensions she really could look forward to q daily spin, | Then she glanced downward over the edge of the car and almost fa-.ted.
 They cruised close to a little round silvcry cloud-so close that Mrs. Cans put out her hand and let her fingers ripple through it's surface. Then Cans swerved gracefully around massive heap of cumulus and squared off from it, stopping the car.
 Now" he exclaimed gleefully, hold tight. Carrie; I'm going to run through that cloud '"
 He turned the power on full, but the aero car never budged. He reversed and tried it again. Not a wheel turned The car lay there, almost motoness
 What on earth can be the matter with it?" Cans asked, in a vexed tone, of Carrie, the car, and the ail around.
 But you're not on earth" inter posed Mrs. Cans, nerVously
 Cans laughed light heartedy al what Mrs. Gains meant seriously
 Something wrong with the gear ing" he said Fix it ill a moment"
 Before Mrs. Cans realized what was aking place Cans monkey wrench 1T hand, stepped over the side of the car
 Edgar" she screamed in abject ter TOT, and then tainted.
 Cans shot down straight for few hundred feet, then his limbs spread and he whirled horribly.
 It was mangled, unrecognizabl' mass that was pried out of a whea field few miles out of the suburban town in which Cans lived.
 When his aero car stopped the situ
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