The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1910-11-01

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
ing circles as you climb the air lad
Ter toward the zenith. The world Hes
spread out beneath you like a colored
nap. You feel as free as the oirds
If the air; you long to measure your
speed with the eagles.
Suddenly there is crashing expo
sion behind and beneath you, and the
wide and steady planes seem 10
crumple up like sick crows wings.
The earth seems to leap up 10 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 pro-
ken machine and coughing engine 10
the earth. Earth and sky seem 10 run
together in an awful burst OF name
and blackness and blessed OBLIVION
blot out the clouds and the good green
earth for you forever.
It must be in some such manner
that the aviator dies. There Is oIl
little evidence of the feelings that riot
through the human brain "hen
dropped from the clouds to the earth
beneath. Few men survive fall OF
any height. in spite of the numo9r
who are meeting with accidents IN
their efforts to master the air. III
spite of the danger, which is admit
plane and the sport OF aviation Is
steadily growing. Yet ten years age
the heavier-than-air flyers were mere
chimeras of a scientific brain.
On the seventeenth day of Deem
Der. 1903, thin-faced man hurled MIN
self out into the air from sandy hill
side down in North Carolina. The
first of the wind riders in the world Y.
history made a long, gliding fight II
a biplane on the hill slope near Kitty
Hawk. Wilbur Wright was the hrs
OF the bird men to rise superior TO th'
air. Five years later the brother o
the first man to fly was trying out
new and powerful aeroplane under TN
direction of the officers of the Unlte'
States army. On a September after
noon the strange new machine rose L
full flight carrying Lieutenant Sen
ridge as a passenger. Orvllle Wrlgh
was at the steering wheel. A gu
wire was snapped by whirling pre-
peller. the great wings crumpled VI
the mass of debris shot to the eartl
and Selfridge, the first of long lin
of martyrs to aviation. was dead &
Fort Meyer.
J Since that September afternoon, les
than two wears ago, % men have 81
] en- up their lives to conquer the ella
t tic and vet stable element-the al
!, Within one week this summer eigt
aviators and dirigible balloonists haV
l been killed Some notable things haS
been accomplished by the earnest ST
, dents and the more foolhardy Of IL
. new school of exhibition flyers, but II
price of success and mastery has bee
over a score of lives. Some of Il
l. men still in the game of fight haN
I been dangerously injured time att
time. Several of the nations of tt
world are beginning to wake up to II
\ danger of inexperienced and irrespo
! sible persons making flights Austr
has passed laws regulating attemp
of her citizens to conquer the a.
Russia has put the ban on the OWN
of machines by irresponsible person
but it is generally understood tn
this is because of her fear of the ne
| distance annihilators in the hands
| nihilists and the radical reds.
| In the United States a few folk a
beginning to wonder how long it W
be until something has to be done
stop the growing death roll amol
pioneers of the air. Aviators and a
alton were openly condemned a fe
DAYS ago by an influential journal
| Cleveland Ohio.
"To Those Who Exalt Themselves
the article was headed and the +
lowing reactionary ideas were {
| pressed: 1.-The craze for dirigible b
looms and airships should be lega
restricted 1t is unthinkable that t
Creator intended that man should
habit the air or fly like the birds.
would have furnished him with win
The numerous deaths that have
| Cured from attempts to fly Shot
| warn man that his habitation a
home is the earth
But in spite Of warnings, publish
| and spoken, the craze for aviation
mains unchecked. A thoucand inv
tors are working in their shops. fl
! in the belief that they are in sight
the final secret that will wrest
! mastery of the upper air spaces fir
4 the birds and place it in the hands