Arizona republican., 1910-11-18

Denver, Nov. 17.-With one wing tip of his machine crumpled like a piece of paper. Ralph JOhnstone, the brilliant young aviator, and holder of the worlds altitude record dropped like a plummet from a height of 500 feet into the inclosure of Overland Park aviation field and was instantly killed.
 When the spectators crowded about the enclosure and reached him his body lay beneath the engine of the bi-plane with the white planes that had failed him in his time of need, wrapped about it like a shroud Nearly every bone in his body was broken.
 He gambled with death once too often, but played the game to the end, fighting cOolly and grimly to the last second to regain control of his broken machine.
 Fresh from his triumphs at Bel mont Park, where he had broken the worlds record for altitude in a flight to 9,714 feet, Johnstone attempted to give the spectators an extra thrill with his most daring feat, a spiral glide, which had made the Wright aviators famous. The spectators got their thrill. but it cost John stone his life.
 The fatal flight was the second Johnstone made in the afternoon In the first flight with Hoxsey and Brookins he had run through the usual program of dips and gides, with his machine apparently under perfect control Then JohnStOne rose again and after a few circles of the course to gain height, he headed towards the foothills.
 His Last Climb
 Still ascending he swept back in a big circle and as he reached the north end of the enclosure he start ed his spiral glide. He was then up eight hundred feet With the planes tilted. at an angle of almost 90 degrees he swoOped down in a narrow circle. The aeroplane seem ing to turn almost in it's own length. As he started in the second circle the middle spur which braces the left side of the lower plane gave way and the wing tips of both the upper and lower planes folded up as though they had been a hinge. For a sec ond Johnstone attempted to right the by warping the other wing tip. When the mortified spectators saw the plane swerve like a wound ed bird and plunge straight toward the earth.
 Johnstone was thrown from his seat as the nose of the plane swung He caught on one side the wire stays between the planes and grasped one of the wooden braces of the upper plane with both hands. Then working his hands and feet he fought by main strength to warp the planes so that their sur faces might catch the air, and check his descent. For a second it seem ed that he might succeed. for his football helmet which was blown off fell much more rapidly than the plane. Hope was only momentary, for when only about 300 feet from the ground the machine turned com pletely and fell with a crash.
 An Audience of Brutes
 Scarcely had he hit the ground when the sensation made brutes of both men and women, who swarm ed over the wreckage, fighting for souvenirs of the terrible occasion. One of the broken wooden stays had thrust its jagged end almost through Johnstone's body. Before the doc tors or the police could reach the scene one man had torn this splin- ter from the crushed and mangled body, and ran gleefully away carry ing his horrible trophy with the aviator's blood still dripping from it's end. Frantic. the crowd tore away the canvas from over his body. and fought for the very gloves which had protected Johnstone's hands from the cold.
 The machine fell on the opposite side of the field from the grand stand and there were but few hun dred near the spot but the physi- clans and police rushed across as