Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-04-17
"RULER OF sky
MAKES THREAT
DESTROY AIRSHIP
SUPPOSED CRANK DEMANDS
TRIBUTE OF MONEY
"LAsT NOTICE" sENT-PoLlcE
ARE INFORMED
Officers of American Aerial and Navl-
cation Company Receive Sc
rIes Of Mysterious
Messages
nRocLA1MING himself the god of

nRocLAIMING himself the god of
the air and the ruler of the sky,
Il a stranger has been sending no.
tices to the officers of the American
Aerial Advertising and Navigation COM
pany that they must pay tribute be-
fore sending up one of their dirigibles,
as planned next month, or the airship
will be destroyed in midair. Several OF
these notices have been delivered at the
Offices of the company in the Citizens
National Bank building and at store
room in the Bradbury block, where the
corporation is making demonstration
of one of it's patents. one marked
last notice." which was left at the lat
ter place yesterday forenoon was
turned over to the police.
The company recently purchased the
aerial propeller patents of w. A. HAN
of Los Angeles and constructed mini
ature airship showing his adaptation
of a universal propeller. The demon
strations which have been made with
the model evidently attracted the at
tention of a crank, who called at the
company's Office and served notice on
the stenographer that the company
must inventory Its holdings and pay
him a sum equal to 10 per cent of the
total. He was directed to the demon
stration office on Third and Broadway,
e. Barber, secretary of the company.
Says He Is God of Air
"I am the god of the air." he said.
land If you are going to use my air you
must pay for 1t. Ten per cent of what
you have is the price. which is reason
able enough. If you do not pay be-
fore you send up your airship ! shall
certainly destroy 1t. You need not fear
that / cannot do this, because l am
responsible for the destruction of San
Francisco. / went to ten representative
men of that city and told them that
they must pay 10 per cent of their
riches. They all refused, and you know
the result"
1.-THE man named over eight or ten
other disasters he said could be attrib-
uted to him." said Mr.. Barber. II did
not pay much attention to him at the
time, and he went away, but has since
'sent us other notices, ending up with
one marked the last He Is fairly well
dressed and intelligent appearing, and
his manner outside of bis wild state
ments appeared quite rational. Next
time he comes / think shall tell him
we have no objection to paying foG the
air If he will put a meter on so that
we are not charged up for a lot we
don't use."
Moore Not Worried
James Moore, president OF the COM
pany, who IL to make the airship flight,
did not seem worried over the poss-
bility of being blown up while in the
air, but other directors of the company
were concerned for fear a lunatic
might make up his mind to take a shot
at the airship Mr.. Moore, who is an
experienced aeronaut and built both the
large airships owned by the. American
Aerial Navigation company, had a
thrilling experience at Memphis, Tenn.
last year, when a drunken man took a
fancy to shoot his airship full of holes.
He proposes to go ahead with the COM
pany's program and make the airship
flights over Los Angeles as soon as the
dirigible can be equipped with the new
propeller devices.
"I believe this has a serious side; an
insane man might easily cause a great
deal of trouble" said w. A. Hall yes
terday. 81 shall not be easy until / find
out for sure that this fellow is harm
less. While he might station himself
where he could shoot up the airship
without causing injury that way, shot
that would disable the aeronaut and
cause him to fall might mean his
DEATH
The company's airships are in gen.
eral form similar to the one which Roy
Knabenshue has been flying from
Chutes park. An ordinary bullet hole
in the envelope would mot prevent the
aeronaut from making safe landing,
and this would be possible even though
the engine were hit and disabled