The San Francisco call., 1909-01-31

number of years ago. l billed to go up and
jump mile. There big crowd present, farm
mostly from the whole central part of the state
it seemed. They in in prairie schooners,
of them distance of 90 miles.
81 was having good deal of trouble with the bal
1oon-the gas was wrong-when a tramp baoonst
came along and offered his services. He seemed to
know good deal about baooning, so l gladly en-
gagged him.
Il worrying about the balloon just before it
was time to go up 4 don't see how I'm going
manage that balloon and parachute both, said 1.
"We, let me jump, he said.
4 i
"I wouldn't listen to it at first but he urged
hard, said it would make his and give him
start and all that that finally consented after giving
the parachute good overhauling and thorough
animation
when we were up only thousand feet made him
cut loose, and down he shot. while the crazy crowd
yelling below.
Il don't know what happened to him. He couldn't
open the cog somehow other, and guess he kept
his mouth open long using bad language and
choked Anyway, he never got the parachute open at
all, and he dropped like ball. smashing every
bone in his body when he hit the ground head first
THE crowd went Wild they tell me- Funny thing
about people, how they think they have their moneys
worth when gets killed
well, landed in pecan grove some distance
from the city, and when l got back it dark and
the excitement had subsded. The prairie schooners
travelling homeward.
"Thc first l found the chairman of the
committee of arrangements. He had made the
tract with me, and knew we'll by sight Well, sir
he got good look at me he gave YELL
hurled beer glass and started running for his
home as fast his fat legs would carry him.
"You see the tramp's head smashed past recog-
milton, and they thought, of course, that it 1 who
had fallen.
Il had hard work getting any after that
and finally sat down and read the paper. 1t the
Peoria Herald, and there the first page
elaborate account of my death began to feel creepy
myself.
Late that night the coroner to the hotel
showed death certificate at and signed it Then
I read it over and found it made out in my
name.
after that gave up. Seems like you're bound to
have dead, said to the coroner, SO we'll let it go
at that But I went right out and telegraphed my
wife-tod her not to believe the papers, that was
not dead, though just at present couldn't prove it
to her; asked her to believe and remember my
past record for truthfuness.
Then the sad part. had to take the tramps
body to his home in Galesburg, little house with
widowed mother and three sisters-had to tell them
the and bury him.
NO. I'm not afraid OF falling, said Wilson,
earnestly "None of us Isl but all would Gke to
stay here bit longer and help the good work along
The great thing is to educate the public, to make
them understand what flying is and what it means
and how practicable it is. Then, perhaps they will
help u.s."
So Wilson perfected his models first and then built
his flying machines Briefly their principle is that of
the variable fulcrum. The operator rides them just
as a bicycst guides his wheel at the handle bars,
shifting weight here and there and turning his planes
now up and now down, now to one side or another
as his instinct of equilibrium his of direction
prompts him.
Wilson has been flying successfully for several
years. and claims to have stayed in the air an hour
and twenty minutes-also have covered three miles
in two minutes. He has witnesses of these tests,
but he asks no one to believe them He has full
patents covering his discoveries; and he is still going
ahead and making in his cool, deliberate, nde-
pendent way
He has not as yet suffered a single accident nor
did he have any to speak of in his parachute days
Captain Baldwin has a similar record. There have
been accidents, however Israel Ludlow is still
partly paralyzed from his aeroplane fall in Florida
Orville Wright is just getting his injuries, and
Lieutenant Selfridge, it will be remembered, was
killed b. the same fall. A number of others have
been hurt here and abroad "and there will be many
more" said Wilson Free ballooning is compara-
lively SAFE but the airship and aeroplane other
matters. This the experimental stage is especially
dangerous"
A particularly interesting branch of Wilson's work
is that devoted to the designing of aerial darts and