The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-03-28
copyrighted. 1909. By Bobbs Nor riI CO..

ure in his position as press rep
resentative of the CARSON Craig.
head Aeronef Company. The Vir.
ginia, her builder, and the contest
with Aerostatic Power were mat.
tiers on which the great dailies had
men at work night and day. This
much was known: she had beer
built on the Alabama coast, she
had flown with incredible speed tc
the Catskills and thence to New
York. This visit to the neighbor.
hood Of Shayne's Hold, the sum.
mer place of the man who ruled
Aerostatic Power, was a tantaliz-
ing mystery. The mountain inn
where the Virginia had been laid
up for repairs, had been visited by
reporters, and the i,npossibility OF
surface communication between il
and Shayne's Hold pointed out
The mysterious Craighead had
leased, for the Aeronef Corpora
ton, the vacant aerodrome ON the
roof of this very building, gone
back to the inn, whence the Vir-
ginia had sailed to their leased
roof within an hour-and not by
Shayne's Hold. After which
Craighead was the news center
from which emanated the most
medley of scientific,
mystical and mystify-
ing news ever heard. Craighead
was always at liberty, ready to see
the representatives of the press,
always laden with story. But
the stories never threw anything
but darkness over the struggle of
Aerostatic Power with the wonder
full new aeronef from the South.
Theodore Carson, engineering
genius, with his southern accent
and retiring manners, was usual.
ly with Mr.. tilley, the personal
of Mr.. Cyrus Wac
dy, a midland capitalist who waa
financing the Carson project. He
avoided reporters, was greedy of
time, and met secret emissaries
from all the world. The New
York, of which he had been so
opened it's arms to him,
but looked on him as upon man
with his head in the lions mouth.
That an Illinois banker, an Ala
bama engineer. and a wild, weird
freak like Craighead could escape
Shayne in his Wall Street jungle
seemed very unlikely.
They even said that Aerostatic
Power had acquired inventions
identical in principle with the
Virginia, but antedating that
aerial marvel by many years; and
they smiled and said. THE old
game!" and 81 told you So" The
Published Carson's
picture as that of man who was
to be robbed IF the greatest in
vention of the ages. A Mobile dis
patch spoke of a certain Wilmer
as the real inventor of the Vir'
lathe machine which made
the air a manouvering place fol
the destruction of navies and
cities, and a medium for the
swiftest transportation yet known
Then someone discovered that
on the day the Carson-Craighead
Company had been formed, the
UNIVERSAL Nitrates and Air Prod
ucts Company was born, with di-
rectors and stockholders Identical
with those of the Aeronef Com
pany, and that they had spent a
great campaign fund in getting
leases and grants for the extrac-
ton from the atmosphere of nj
trates and the like, in lines like
those of Scots plaid all over the
continent. The air over almost
every highway had been granted
away by the owners of the fee
the very streets of New York be-
ing covered so far as to cut the
city into nearly a hundred irregu
lar blocks. The other great cite:
were similarly gridironed. The
space oyer the smaller rivers anC
streams was mostly sold to the
Air Products Company. The mys
terry in this so stimulated curiosity
that it caused more excitement
than the Virginia herself. Fol
these SEEMINGLY worthless rights
over farms, streams, roads an6
streets were like a huge spider:
web spun as a net over the worlc
and Asia, as we'll al
America. Someone with great re
sources was up to something big
Something was to be caught II
the net-but what?
And answer, Craighead emit
ted daily statements of dream:
wilder than the visions of opium
Mr.. Craighead seemed crazy-'bu'
was he? Mr.. Craighead seemed
shallow: but was he not really
deep? Mr.. Craighead had organ
lied both these companies on the
same day, differed them by the
same men-one a wild scheme
that made the world laugh, thu
other based on an invention tina
must change the course of his
tory. Endless discussion ensued
and the question answered wa'
this: what can these grants o
ntrate-rights to this opium-drean
company have to do with the navi
cation of the air?
Craighead and Carson dinet
that day with Mr. Filley, a littl'
man with great, scantily-thatch
ed head and no body, who ate lob
ster and green turtle soup, ant
drank port, and grew paler ever!
day.
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