Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1910-10-06

that half deafens = saszss
you. The wind of
the open spaces sings In your ears.
Fhe wide wings are lifting you stead
lily higher and higher in great sweep
ing 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
ut the air; you long to measure your
speed with the eagles.
Suddenly there is a crashing explo-
sion behind and beneath you, and the
vide and steady planes seem to
erumple up like sick crows wings.
The earth seems to leap UP to meet
:: you, and tho rushing gale Of air seems
10 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 flame,
and blackness and blessed oblivion
blot out the clouds and the good green
/ earth for you forever,
1t must be in some such manner
K
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
aheir efforts to master the air. In
spite OF the danger, which is admit
teddy great, the craze for the aero.
plane and the sport of aviation is
steadily growing. Yet ten years ago
the heavier than-air flyers We're mere
chimeras Of scientific brain.
+ { On the seventeenth day Of Decem-
4 Der, 1903, a thin-faced man hurled him
Self out into the air from a sandy hill
side down In North Carolina The
hrst Of the wind riders In the worlds
history made a long, gliding flight In
bipIane on the hill slope near Kitty
Hawk. Wilbur Wright was the first
OF the bird men to rise superior to the
5 air. Five years later the brother of
the first man to fly was trying out
new and powerful aeroplane under the
direction OF the officers of the United
1 States army. On September after
noon the strange new machine rose in
full Hight, carrying Lieutenant Self
ridge as q passenger. Orville Wright
i was at the steering wheel. A guy
wire was snapped by whirling pro-
pelIer, the great wings crumpled up,
h the mass Of debris shot to the earth,
and Selfridge, the first Of long line
of martyrs to aviation, was dead at
Z Fort Meyer. s#.s
Since that September afternoon, less
Than two years ago, % men have CIV
4 On up their lives to conquer the elias
: TIC and yet stable element-the air.
4 Within one week this summer eight
4 ayiators and diIigible balloonists have
I been killed. Some notable things have
4 been accomplished by the earnest stu
\ dents and the more foolhardy OF the
y new school OF exhibition flyers, but the
4 price Of success and mastery has been
over score OF lives. Some Of the
men still In the game of flight have
been dangerously injured time after
4 time. Several OF the nations Of the
world are beginning to wake UP to the
danger of inexperienced and irrespon-
sible persons making flights. Austria
& has passed laws regulating attempts
y of her citizense conquer the air.
Russia has pss she ban IN the owning
shines BY irresponsible persons,
/ nut II ID generally understood that
this III beehuse Of her fear OF the new
distance sanihilstors In the hands OF
4 LISTS and the Frdical reds.
IN tho United States q few folk are
estnning TO wonder how long 1t will
o until something has to be done to
stop the growing death roll among
pioneers Of the ali. Ayiators and avi-
alton were openly condemned few
lays $50 BY al influential Journal Of
cleveland, Ohio.
Thosa Who Exalt Themselves =
Ne article WIS headed, and the fol.
q pMtng reactionary Ideas were ex-
ssed /. he craze for diriRible bal.
h lo0ns and airships should Be legally
tItcted Il Ii uni inkable that the
Creator intended that man should III.
3 abit ne III al ~ like ths birds. Ha
EQuI have turn shed him With wings,
my %
from ttempts Us I'M should
man thA4 his habitation ma
illsf VI tho ea1t l,s Z
ss;zIiS zs,e
4 sIsSaass,azs ayiation rs
zs ia d inyen
I Il p n m
81 g. aSats 81