Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1910-09-15

are beating the air <SnRoHEs5 o.
with an even roar N-.sSfsIS iSJoSr IN
that half deafens y a-- SoA--as
you. The wind of
the open spaces sings in your ears.
The wide wings are lifting you stead
lily higher and higher in great sweep
ang circles as you climb the air lad
der toward the zenith. The world lies
spread out beneath you like colored
map. You feel as free as the birds
Of the air; you long to measure your
speed with the eagles.
Suddenly there is a crashing explo-
sion behind and beneath you, and the
wide and steady planes seem to
crumple up like sick crows wings
The earth seems to leap up to meet
you, and the rushing gale of air seems
TO tear the breath from your lungs.
Your senses reel as the tremendous
pull of gravity hurls you and your bro
ken machine and coughing engine to
the earth. Earth and sky seem to run
together in an awful burst OF lame,
and blackness and blessed oblivion
blot out the clouds and the good green
earth for you forever.
1t must be in some such manner
that the aviator dies. There is but
little evidence of the feelings that riot
through the human brain when
dropped from the clouds to the earth
beneath. Few men survive fall OF
any height, in spite of the number
who are meeting with accidents IN
their efforts to master the air. In
spite of the danger which is admit
tedly great, the craze for the aero
plane and the sport of aviation is
steadily growing. Yet ten years ago
the heaVier-than-air flyers were mere
achimeras of a scientific brain.
On the seventeenth day of Decem-
ber, 1903, a thin-faced man hurled him
self out into the air from sandy hill
side down in North Carolina. The
first Of the wind riders in the worlds s
history made a long, gliding flight in
a biplane on the hill slope near Kitty
Hawk. Wilbur Wright was the first
OF the bird men to rise superior TO the
air Five years later the brother OF
tho first man to fly was trying out a
new and powerful aeroplane under the
direction of the officers of the United
States army. On a September after
noon the strange new machine rose in
full flight, carrying Lieutenant Self
ridge as a passenger. Orville Wright
was at the steering wheel. A guy
wire was snapped by a whirling pro-
peller, the great wings crumpled up,
the mass of debris shot to the earth,
and Selfridge the first of long line
of martyrs to aviation, was dead at
Fort Meyer.
Since that September afternoon. less
than two years ago. % men have Civ
en- up their lives to conquer the elias
4ic and yet stable element-the air.
Within one week this summer eight
aviators aud dirigible balloonists have
been killed. Some notable things have
been accomplished by the earnest stu
dents and the more foolhardy of the
new school Of exhibition flyers, but the
price of success and mastery has been
over a score of lives. Some OF the
men still in the game OF flight have
been dangerously injured time after
time. Several of the nations OF the
world are beginning to wake up 10 the
danger of Inexperienced and irrespon
siba persons making flights. Austria
has passed laws regulating attempts
OF het citizens TO conquer the air
Russia has put the ban on tbs owning
OF machines by irresponsible persons
but Il Is generally understood thai
this Is because Of her fear Of the new
distance anpihllators In the hands oi
hhl.lsfs and the radical reds.
m the United States few folk are
beginning 10 wonder how long Il vii
De- uutii something has 20 be done q
stop the growing death roll amonl
pioneers Of the air Ayiators and ayi
alton we're openly condemned feS
days ago by an influential Journal o
Cleveland. Ohio
"To Those Who Esalt Themselves.
the eriicle was headed and the FOL
lowing roactiouary ideas were ex
pressed. The craze for dirlsihle bal
looms and airhila should he legally
restricted u ia unthlakahlo that ths
Creator Intended that man should IN
habit the alr or Hy like the birds NJ
would hatr furnished blm 9Th wings
The numerous deaths that have oe
currrd from attempts to Hy ahoull
Nafu man that ha hahintlon an.
home Ia lhe sarth"
but Boa spite uf WARNINGS ptbllsbe.
an spoken the craze f4r aviation e.
malaH unchecked a thoHsau8 Hyea
tors ar. working h tHs.f shops. aru
A. che belief that tHfy are lu .irtt i
IN Small secret that HiH bre.t th.
nastefg of the Hpper sr apaea roa
ths birds ha place IL ln gao hauls @