The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-07-16
PAGE THREE

plane ent behind a dozen husky SOL
der sentries simply to get away from
the bugs. Every day there are a
couple of dozen of these cranks on
hand. sitting as near the scene as the
soldier boys will permit, and handing
out free advice to anybody who will
listen. Each of them knows how to
coitect the minor defects in the
Wright ~aeroplane all of them VIII
tell YOU, confidentially. that their
idea of flying is vastly superior to the
Dayton boys. Vastly different.
One of the bugs shows up at the
press tent on the Fort Myer parade
grounds daily. and illustrates by
means of a small piece of twisted iron
rod and a tin, propellor-shaped missile
the principle of the helicopter. APP
parently, he has h~elicopters on the
brain. He talks h~elicopter, walks heli@
copter, and thinks h~elicopter. His lit
tie portable illustration of the hell
copter was a child's p%laything in by
gone days. but, as the bug will ex-
plain, flying has been iii vogue among
birds since the creation.
Then there is another-this one says
he's from Kansas-who followed the
| Wrights rom Dayton here to Wash
ington. He has some radical i'm
provements to sugge in their ma
chine. THE of the planes
isn't right" he plaintively declares.
They ought to be this way and
he pulls out a small volume Of as
sorted curve drawings, or, If you don't
edge out of sight quick. he will offer
to draw you q new diagram.
During one of the very best flights.
when the Wight machine was curvet-
ting along in the air and everybody
else was engrossed I'M watching its
behavior, n bug a his eyes glued
to the flight of a big buzzard, across
the far end of the field. He said in
explanation that the Wright ma
chine was a mere ~bungling attempt at
flying, and that the true solution Of
aerial navigation was to be found in
The study of birds.
The two Wright brothers are quiet.
sincere, modest, and plucky men. The
treason they don't mix in with the
crowd, the reason they ask that the
field be cleared, is simply that they
time to fly if they had to bear tho
onslaughts Of the bug brigade.
In addition to the bugs, there is a
big bunch of real sky pilots on hand
every day for the flights. There is a
Roy Kn~abenshue, for instance, who
has scooted around in his dirigible for
ve-sed in balloon and aeroplane lore.
A dozen or more members of the
Aero club are always on hand. Their
, there are several lecturers on aero
n~autics, besides the officers of the sig
nal corps, several of whom are expert
aerial navigators. All of these have
beer annoyed by the ~aeronautical bug
themselves and they know what it
means. They are the quiet, reserved
men who leave OrviTle and Wilbur to
their on DEVICES.
1t is the best sort Of fun to try to
interview the Wright. brothers. Meth
er will ever learn just nov to talk
fUc publication" They are wOrd-shy,
as well as bug-shy. After every flight,
the newspaper gang pounces upon the
Dayton boys for information. The
brothers take turns at being. inter
viewed. Instead of making a short
concise statement of that which they
want printed. both Wilbur and Orvills
will come out, smile pleasantly and
wait for questions. Generally the an
swers are mOnosyllabic. Is the engine
all righto Yes. Oh yes. When are
you going to make a long flight? Can't
sly yet-and so on.
After one of the first attempts this
year to fly with the machine at Fort
/ Myer, which ended in the aeroplane
! refusing to stay in the air, Orville saw
the newspaper mem
What h~appened?" queried one re-
porter, anxious to inform a ~palpitating
world.
well" answered C-ville and he
was serious. tOO-"we went up, and
we came down"