Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1911-11-24
CHAPTER |.
Bert SmalIways Arises.

Tom SmallWayS, 1T keeps
ON.
L You'd hardly think it could
keep on said Tom Smallways.
1t was long before the war i'll the
air began that Mr.. Smalways made
tins remark. He was sitting on the
fence ut the end of his garden and
surveying the great Bun hill gas
works with an eye that neither praised
nor blamed. Above the clustering
gasometers three unfamiliar shapes ap-
peared. thin. wallowing badders that
Tapped and rolled about and grew big
ger and bigger and rounder and round
er-hallcons in course of imitation for
the South of England Aero clubs Sat
urday afternoon ascent.
Young Bert Smalways possessed
motor bicycle. He was six years
younger than Tom and had touched
the fringe of a number of trades in
Succession-draper's porter. chemists
boy. doctors page, junior assistant
gasfitter. envelope addrcsser. milk cart
assistant golf caddie. and at last
helper in a bicycle shop. Here ap-
parently he found the progressive
quality his nature had craved His
man named Grubb.
Then The most astounding incident
in The whole of that dramatic chapter
OF human history. the coming of fly
ing. occurred. People talk glibly
enough of epoch making events; this
was an epoch making event. 1t was
the unanticipated and entirely success
full fight of Mr.. Alfred Butteridge
from the Crystal palace to Glasgow
and back in small businesslke look
ing machine. heavier than air-an en-
tirely manageable and controllable ma
chine that could fly as well as a pi
geon. 1t wasn't. one felt. fresh step
forward in the matter so much as Il
giant stride. Il leap, Mr.. Butteridgc
remained in the air altogether for
about nine hours and during that time
he few with the ease and assurance
of bird.
He was one of those gentlemen from
nowhere Fate still succeeds in pro-
ducing for the stimulation of mankind.
lie came. it was variously said from
Australia and America and the south
of France. His return to London was
an occasion of unparalleled excite
ment. Tom and Bert Smallways both
saw that return from the crest of Bun
hill.
Bert knew enough of things and the
problem of aeronauticS to realize that
this gigantic imitation of bee would.
to use his own idiom, give the news
papers fits The next day it was
clear the fits had been given even as
he said their magazine pages We're
black with hasty photographs; their
prose was convulsive; they foamed at
the headline. The next day they We're
worse. Before the week was out they
were not so much published as carried
screaming into the street. The domi-
nant fact in the uproar was the ex.
ceptional personality of Mr.. Butteridge
and the extraordinary terms he de-
maRded for the secret of his machine.
He faced the British public now with
the question whether they wanted his
secret or not. He was, he said perpet-
ually, an Imperial Englshman," and
his first wish and his last was to see
his invention the privilege and mo-
nopoly of the empire. Only
1t was there the difficulty began
Mr.. Butteridge, it became evident,
was a man singularly free from any
false modesty. His published portraits
insisted primarily upon an immense
black muStache and secondarily upon
tierceness behind the mustache. He
had height of six feet two inches
and weight altogether proportionate
to that. Moreover he had Il love affair
of large and unusual dimensions and
irregular circumstances. and the still
largely decorous British public learned
with reluctance and alarm that SYM
pathetic treatment of this affair was
inseparable from the exclusive acuuisi-
tion of the priceless secret of aeria!
stability by the British empire.
One fact. however. remained perma-
nent throughout all the developments
of this affair behind Butteridges pre-
posterous love interest, his politics and
personality and all his shouting and
boasting, and that was that, so far as
the mass of people knew. he was in
sole possession of the secret of the
practicable aeroplane in which, for all
one could tell to the contrary. the key
OF the future empire of the world re-
sided. And presently. to the great con-
sternation of innumerabe people. in
Guiding among others Mr.. Bert Small
ways. 1t became apparent that what
ever negotiations were in progress for
the acquisition of this precious secret
by the British government were in