Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-02-19

struggle and turned the nose OF the
Bleriot toward the earth.
j have words to describe that de-
scent. II would sound like the veriest
trained to repression OF superlatiyes
could give an idea of its horrors without
making it seem like silly exaggeration.
Every reader has probably gone down
fifteen or twenty floors in an express
elevator. Do YOU remember how dizzy
and sick at the stomach il made you
My descent was made at the rate OF
a vertical mile in about two minutes
Willie l was travelling horizontally at the
rate Of seventy or seventy-five miles an
hour. In other words, my vertical speed
downward was about four times as fast
as that of the fastest elevator. and | had
the added strain Of the tremendous hori-
Zontal momentum.
y
Tho effect Of this rapid descent is Al
most paralyzing. Those who have travelled
under the new Pennsylvania railroad tun-
nels TO New York have felt the effect
OF the pressure OF air against the ear
drums. This is about one-tentn the ef-
feet that is made upon the cars when
descending in an aeroplane from a great
height. In my case, in coming down
from a.S97 feet at my tremendous rate
Of speed, my ears felt that they would
burst and the top of my head felt as
though it would fly Oft at any moment
Added to this came the feeling OF nausea,
which grew and grew until my head
swan and, Just for one moment, ] am
sure, / lost consciousness. This occurred.
] should say. at height of between 1903
and 5000 feet
Again. I had \, bring all my self con-
troll to my rescue. but my nervous energy
was eDbing fast and / remember won
dering how much longer l should he
able to fight back the utter collapse that
i knew was coming soon.
you must remember that all this was
occurring when ! had only All approx
mate idea of how high above the earth
i was and when l had absolutely no idea
of my geographical position. After l
had passed through the upper strata of
clouds at a height of some 1000 feet |
had not again seen the earth except for
little drifting patches OF indistinct drab
as flew over the riffs in the vapor, and
! did not know whether l was one mile
or hundred from Philadelphia. And
now, i was descending so fast and was
so nearly helpless, both physically and
cept .,eep the Bleriot on the proper slant
to give the best descent with the least
possible strain.
Into the clouds again / went, circling
now, with some vague idea that had
managed somehow to keep over the Point
Breeze field from which / had started
/ knew that I should collapse utterly
when l landed-supp osing, of course. that
1 did finally land In safety-and / hoped
that / would come down among my
friends where I could be taken care o!
and where there would be none of the
added strain and anxiety of explaining
to strangers and getting into communi
cation with those / had left
But my first sight OF the earth as
dropped from the lower fringes of the
clouds showed me that l was doomed t.
another disappointment. Not a sign o
a city was in sight. Not single land
mark that | had been told to look on
for was to be seen. Instead. there wer,
farm land and forest, plowed fields ant
orchards and nowhere so much as
smooth meadow fit for me to alight upol
without smashing up.
For the third time / saw Death. as i
were, sitting grinning on the gasoline