The National tribune., 1909-09-09

The high fiiers'' had great time at
Rheims. and the cup for the most sue
cessful flight comes to us, the American,
Glenn Curtiss, being the fortunate win
ner. There is great activity in the
aviator world, and flying machines are
selling well, the Frenchman, Bleriot,
selling no less than So in one week. The
cost of his machine is $4,000. Acct
dents still happen occasionally to the
aviators, it is true, but comparatively
few of these are fatal, and during the
week at Rheims, tho over 1900 flights
We're made, there was not single acc1-
dent. When one thinks of the appalling
number of fatalities from automobiles,
and yet how everyone who can possibly
afford it buys one, and everyone who
can possibly get ride in one jumps al
the chance, it is not difficult to believe
that the flying machine will very soon
put the nose of the big auto out OF
joint, and force it to take q back seat.
Thousands upon thousands of people
flock to places where flights are sched-
uIed to come off, showing how power
fully the imagination has been affected
by this novelty and how profoundly the
interest is stirred. Count Zeppelin, who
had such bad luck with his first air
ship and who sold his second to the
German Government, has now his third,
and Orville Wright, who is at present
in Berlin, has just made a successful
test of his new areoplane, which was
built in Germany. When one thinks
what these masters of the air have ac-
complished during the past year. of
their great strides toward success, OF
the rapid growth of public confidence
in them, one is prepared for anything,
even a flight to Mars and q call upon
the Martians.
. Collector Loeb, of the New York
Customs House, has just run up against
a snag, sure enough. Some months ago
an American lady received a visit from
her sister, no longer a resident=of this
country. The visiting sister was the
owner of a very beautiful necklace,
valued at $4,000, which. when she ar
rived in New York, was allowed to
come in duty free, as would be the
Jewels and other personal effects OF any
foreigner coming TO our shores. WhlIe
with her sister the necklace lady made
the former a present of this beautiful
piece of jewelry, and shortly after the
Two sisters went abroad together. In
the meanwhile the exchange of the
necklace came to the ears of the Treas
ury agents abroad, and when sister NO.
started for home these officials noti-
fed the customs people in New YORK
to be on the lookout for her. The neck
lace was seized, and the lady is trying
to get 1t back, claiming that once ad-
mitted free the matter was ended. Ihe
Law Department of the Custom House
Is wrestling with the affair now, and
considerable interest is centered in their
decision. There is no doubt that an
outrageous amount of smuggling goes
on all the time. Altf1o everyone is al
lowed to bring in articles to the value
of 500 free of duty, scarcely any wo-
man returns from Europe without
many times that amount in all kind of
things which she has picked up here
and there. Some of these women
never declare anything, simply filling
out the customs paper, wearing ap-
parel and personal effects trusting to
luck to get out of the officers hands
without detection, while others declare
q part of their things, placing these in
conspicuous part of their trunks,
thinking their apparent honesty will
satisfy the official Both of these meth
ods generally work well, hundreds Of
women every year getting in their stuff
without paying cent of duty. A wo-
man who makes frequent trips to Eu-
rope was once heard to remark that
whenever she returned she always man.
aged to have some attractive young
woman meet her. This girl would get
hold of some amiable-looking Custom
House officer, and by her smiles and
cajoleries persuade him to make a
light examination of her friends lug
gage. The lady had never been forced
to pay duty on anything. Collector
Loeb says this fibbing must be stopped;
but, bless his heart, he can't stop 1t
Women will always find some way to
cheat Uncle Sam when 1t comes TO pay
ing duty on their finery, if not one way
then another.
There is a trusting simplicity about
this which is quite touching. manu-
facturer of New York has applied foi
q divorce from his life partner on the
ground that he was crazy when he
married her. When he regained his
reason, or came to his senses, he left
her and applied for divorce. 1t tool
him just two months to get his brair
cleared: One of cynical turn of mint
might remark, in reference to this Ease
that, judging from results, most people
are crazy when they marry. Indeed
do not the poets tell us that love is Z
madness? -
That exciting mental contest of tn
days of our grandmothers, the spellidt
bee, is about to be revived in the In
diana schools, so We are told. II Il
claimed that :he children of the presen
day do not begin.s;O spell as well a,
those children who years and years ag'
stood up in the .ittle plain countr1
school houses and, with red cheeks ant
bright eyes, spelled each other dow!
until one proud girl or boy only re
manned standing. That boy or girl wa
the pride and envy of the whole littI
community, and, naturally. the spelling
lesson was well studied. Older peopl
often took a hand at these spelling
bees. ana many a love affair was tn
result of them. All this practice. a
well as the public sentiment on tn
subject, made poor speller rare bir'
indeed, for the unfortunate person VIII
hesitated or put the wrong combina
tion of letters together fell at once il
the social scale. Our grandmother
may have been e trife cloudy as {
fourth dimension, but they could spel
all right
With all this talk about the alarminj
increase in the number of unmarrie,
men in the country, and of the effort
of several of the States TO correct thi
by bachelor tax, the merits of tn
French system of matrimony shine ou
with clear and unquestioned bril-
liancy. A member of the Wisconsi
Legislature. who has just introduced
bin calculated TO make men with lear
ings TO a life Of single blessedness 81
up and take notice. says that a larg
proportion OF people wish to marry. bu
do not know how TO go about it. O
course, IN this country a poor girl ca
do nothing but look as sweet and prett
as possible, and then wait patiently fo
some man to come along, fall In low
with her and propose, while, as for tn