The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1910-09-09

AA NlAA AAlF
Your engine
is working evenly
and your sea. l
soned propellers al.ll .lll.lllA
are beating the air S<asoNFss *.
with an even roar =, ,sSisIy iSJaiRsSX
that half deafens AzlA-2as
. you. The wind Of
the open spaces sings In your ears
The wide wings are lifting you stead
NY higher and higher in great sweep
ing circles as you climb the air lad
Ter toward the zenith, The world lies
spread out beneath you Ike a colored
map. You feel as free as the birds
If the air; you long to measure your
speed with the eagles.
Suddenly there is "a crashing eEplo'
sion behind and beneath you, ana the
wide and steady planes seem TO
srumple up like q sick crows wings.
Fhe earth seems 70 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 bro
ken machine and coughing engine to
the earth. Earth and sky seem to run
together in an awful burst OF flame
and blaclness and blessed oblivion
blot out the clouds and the good green
earth for you forever
II 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 a 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
chimeras of a scientific brain.
On the seventeenth day of Decem-
Der, 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
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 /
loon the strange new machine rose in .
'uI flight, carrying Lieutenant Self .
,idge as a passenger. Orville Wright |
was at the steering wheel A guy .
wire was snapped by a Whirling pro
leller, the great wings crumpled up,
he mass of debris shot to the earth,
md Selfridge, the first of long line
If martyrs to aviation, was dead at
Fort Meyer.
Since that September afternoon, less
han two years ago, % men have Civ
IN up their lives to conquer the elias
ic and yet stable element-the air.
Within one week this summer eight
.viators and dirigible balloonists have
,een killed. Some notable things have
,een accomplished by the earnest stu
Tents and the more foolhardy of the
lew school of exhibition flyers, but the
rice of success and mastery has been
,ver a score of lives. Some OF the
nen still in the game of fight have
.een dangerously injured time after
ime. Several of the nations of the
World are beginning to wake up to the
anger of inexperienced and irrespon-
ible persons making flights. Austria
as passed laws regulating attempts
f her citizens to conquer the air
lussia has put the ban on the owning
f machines by irresponsible persons,
ut it is generally understood that
his is because of her fear of the new
istance annihilators in the hands of
ihilists and the radical reds.
In the United States a few folk are
eginning to wonder how long it will
e until something has to be done to
top the growing death roll among
ioneers of the air, Aviators and avi- 1
ton were openly condemned a few
avs ago by an influential journal of
.leveland, Ohio
"To Those Who Exalt Themselves"
he article was headed, and the fol- ]
1wing reactionary ideas were ex- .
ressed: "The craze for dirigible bal
)ons and airships should be legally ;
It is unthinkable that the I
reator intended that man should in !
abit the air or fly like the birds. He S
,ould have furnished him with wings.
he numerous deaths that have oc- ]
urred from attempts to fly should ]
arm man that his habitation and Y
ONE is the EARTH '
But in spite of warnings, published !
nd spoken, the craze for aviation re- t
lains unchecked. A thousand inven-
)rs are working in their shops, firm /
! the belief that they are in sight of !
le final secret that will wrest the t
lastery of the upper air spaces from i
ne birds and place it in the hands of /