The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-11-11
TARGET PRACTICE
 FOR HE AvIATORS
Some of Them Make Good
 Marks at Baltimore
THE WIND IS TOO STRONG
severnl Bird Men Take Passengers Up in inc Air-Attempts Are Made at Altitude Flights But With
 out Very Much Success

out Very much success
 Baltimore, November 10.-Wind and rain cut today's aviation events three quarters of an hour short and ended abruptly a programme in which there had been bomb throwing and target shooting from speedy airships, aerial gymnastics that thrilled and trips aloft made by prominent government offi- cials
 Postmaster General Frank M. Hitch- cock, after a flight with Count Jacques de Lesseps, was so pleased that he asked Arch Hoxsey for higher flight in the Wright biplane. But HoXsey had found the upper air too gusty to make passenger carrying altogether safe and he asked the Postmaster General to wait until tomorrow.
 Gen. James Allen. chief of the signal corps, U. s. A, also went aloft in Count de Lesseps' 10O-horsepower Bier tot In the party from Washington with him and the Postmaster General were Secretary of War Jacob M. Dickinson, Gen. William Witherspoon, president of the war college of the army; Count Zeppelin, minister of the Netherlands, Louden, Thomas Nelson Page and sev- eral others, together with number of ladies.
 Count de Lesseps In his Bleriot, took a1oft for rifle practice Capt. John P. Douw of the state ordnance corps but the best of the shots missed the mark by four feet.
 Latham Tries Targets Latham then tried at the target with a revolver. Of four of his shots, two were hits, one scoring two and the other three points. Count de Lesseps then took up as a passenger Lieutenant Dupuy of the signal corps of the state of New York.
 Just before 8 o'clock J. Armstrong Drexel began to try for the altitude prize, the wind at the time blowing nine miles an hour. He returned in 15 minutes, reporting the wind toe
 1uky for a high flight. His paragraph recorded S20 feet.
 Latham began the bomb throwing y trophy and made score of 15 points with six bombs. One of these would have dropped Into the funnel of a bat tleship and 1t therefore counted as a bulls eye, Under the rules governing the Barry trophy contest, bombs must be thrown from a height of not less than 100 feet. Some of Lathams fell from more than double that altitude and against rising wind. Drexel dropped six of the missiles upon the outlines representing the deck of a battleship but as none of them struck a vital spot his score was only six.
 During this contest Hoxsey, in a big assenger-carrying Wright biplane, flew from the railroad station at Halethorpe He cireed the course many times, per forming brilliant evolutions and dividing the interest of the crowd with Drexel who continued his bomb dropping. Hox- sey flew his Wright in almost every conceivable manner, now in taperine longitudinal spirals, now gracefully glid- ing from great heights, now literally gliding over the surface of the earth only to rise again into the upper air He made three flights in all during ths afternoon. Shortly after o'clock angry clouds appeared and less than a quar- ter of an hour later came the rain end ing the flights.
 Hitchcock Flies
 Shortly after o'clock Count De Les seps, with Postmaster General Hitchcocl st his side, swept from the ground fl l the big Bleriot, and as they scared pas | the grandstand at an elevation of abou l 100 feet, MT. Hitchcock waved his hanS | to the applauding spectators. He seemed
 to be enjoying himself thoroughly H. 1 descended after making three laps II 1 five minutes.
 Aerial sharpshooting began when Coun
 De Lesseps, in a 100-horsepower Bleriot took aloft John P Douw, general staf
 captain, Maryland National Guard, wh' l shot at "C" target, United States arm, | small arms practice.
 Bomb throwing for the Commodor,
 Barry cup offered by John Barry Ryal 1 or New York, will be contested by tn aviators, the bombs being thrown at tn outline of 6 battleship 50o-odd feet lon and about 70 feet wide, traced on tn l field.
 Captain Douw fired two shots in thre circuits, coming no closer than four fee l of the mark. Then Latham tried hi hand at target practice from his Antoin
 cite and made two hits in four attempt
 with a revolver.
 General Allen in Flight l General Allen of the United States sig | nal corps made flight of three and | half minutes with De Lesseps. l In the bomb throwing contest Latham | fired six shots in all The official SCOT l gave him 15 points, one of the shot
 being bulls eye" His second sho | appeared to be a funnel hit, his fourt struck the deck and the fifth was a fai l smokestack hit from about POO feet Tn sixth shot also hit the battleship Postmaster General Hitchcock expresses | desire for a flight with Hoxsey, bu the latter felt obliged to refuse the re quest, explaining that the wind was s gusty that he did not want to take an, I passenger, although he did not mfnd i himself He offered to take Mir Hitch cock up tomorrow, however.
 l Latham and Hoxsey each finished shor
 flights Just as a severe storm of win,
 and rain set in. This brought the day proceedings to a sudden end.
 Rn0CEUET.T,C AnUTGE