The Washington herald., 1909-07-31

while on Mr.. Taft's left stands
las Katherine.
With the cumulative suddenness OF an
ogre In a nightmare. the strange thing
turned TO the left. the two human figures
within It sitting motionless and !mpas-
siye.
Machine Comes TO Rest.
The biplane was headed down the field.
descending evenly. In front OF the aero
plane shed It skinned above the ground.
almost touching the grass. The roar Of
the motor stopped. The blades OF the
propellers became visible, revolved a few
times. and remained motionless. There
was pun Of yellow dust. another pun.
then. with the long, graceful glide OF
skater. the skids slipped along the ground
and the machine came 90 res.
Officially and unoflcislly the flight was
over. The time was 1919 O'Clock.
Horsemen galloped UP and down the
ropes, with difficulty keeping the thou
sands OF enthusiastic watchers in check.
Men darted into the press tent 10 send
short. crisp dispatches TO London. Paris.
and New York. telling OF the first cross
country flight over such a country III
the history OF heavier-than-air naviga-
ton.
IN the meantime. Wilbur was making
down the field toward the silent ma
chine. What sort Of salutation passed
between them is not on the record. but
Il was probably short enough for all
/ practical purposes.
Wilbur Il Excited
For the first time since Wilbur and
OrviIle Wright came 70 Washington.
Wilbur was the more excited. or the
less unexcited. OF the two. Also he was
the more willing Of the two to talk about
] the flight.
AS for Orville. he had very little to
say OF the sensations Of the trip. Per-
haps he felt them. Perhaps he is not
I the sort that feels them. Perhaps he
could feel them. but did not have the
\ time 70 give to them. At any rate. he
! walked quietly into the aeropIane shed.
/ put on his coat and straw hat. stretched
! his legs. and looked es II he wanted 10
20 home.
I His desire TO get away. however. had
a setback when Miss Wright and her
women friends fished out a couple OF
/ theTmos bottles and some light lunch.
/ and set out a repast IN the back part
/ OF the aeroplane shed. After that hts
| escape was cut of by a group OF news
paper men, and ne was forced TO make
Few well-chosen remarks"
I'D About 900 Feet.
There isn't much to say" he said.
IN half embarrassed way. The en-
CINE worked perfectly. and didn't miss
single explosion. The greatest height
we reached. above the gully at Four
Mile Run. was probably about 900 feet.
At no time were we nearer than 2OC
feet to the tops Of the trees on the out
ward run.
I'VE could see, way down below Us.
throngs OF persons on the tops of the
houses Some OF them seemed to have
taken sheets from their beds 10 wave al
Us: the cloths seemd go large. The
roofs seemed very far down IN the dis
lance. and. of course. didn't have much
Of a chance to look at them.
THE wind was stronger up there than
thought II was going TO be, and blow
ing from the west carried me slightly on
nv course. When we came whiting sigh,
OF Shooters Hill I had to bear quite
sharply TO the right TO get 70 the balloon
around which I had 70 pass. I crossed
IN front of II, turned to the left. and
healed back over the crowd that had
gathered there. In turning came about
a little too fast. lost Roadway and drop
ped considerably, SO that I started good
deal lower than l had come.
Loses Considerable Speed.
''Then when we reached. the deep guIly
at -Four Mile Run we ran into pro-
nounced down trend IN the atmosphere
and I had to climb hard to overcome It
From that point practically the entire 10.
turn was something OF a climb, and
imagine I lost considerable speed by It
THE flight was satisfactory IN every
way. and from the performance OF the bt.
plane, 1 figure that the machine could gC
forty-flvs miles an hour with conditions
That Is, without q cross wind and over q
course. even as rough as this. but which
was better acquainted with.
Sensations? Why, was too busy
looking at balloons to have any sensa-
tons" said Lieut. Foulois. who took his
! first flight In an aeroplane with a good
deal OF nonchalance.
How do I like to make history7 Why
did 1 help to make any history was
the way ne parted the second question
Then he put his hands UP 10 his ears and
rubbed the sides OF his head.
! NOlGC -
Il can hardly hear anything" he said
with a grin. That engine makes such a
noise. and the wind comes by your head
so fast that you are almost deaf for
some time afterward. had nothing to &c
on the trip except to watch the time
keep my eyes on the marker balloons
and sit still. When we landed had the
Job Of retarding the spark under Orville's
direction.
I'VE said nothing to each other on the
way, except when we passed the line et
the other end and Orville shouted to me
so that 1 could get the time. What
other things we had to say we said BY
signs
'When we came within sight Of thC
other end OF the line the crowd on Shoot
ers Hill began TO wave their arms, but
We couldn't hear them shout until we
were almost directly over them. Their
we gould hear a sort Of commotion com
ing from them. I should say we were
several hundred feet above the ground a
our highest point but II WAS so far thai