The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-01-02
LIFE HISTORY OF
 AVIATOR M0|SANT
Had Led a Life of Thrilling
 Adventure
NOTED FOR HIS DARING
tion-WeirdIy Fulfilled Prophecy of Having Seven Lives-Had
 Faith in AerOpIanes

and lived there until he was 19 years of age He was the second of six children, whose parents are now dead. His father was baker and the three sons followed | this trade. Twenty-one years ago they | went to Brighton Park, Chicago, where | they conducted a bakery for three years and failed. John B. Moisant of Kanka- | kee, an uncle, after whom the aviator was named, gave his nephews money tc l go to San Francisco. After years ex- perience there the brothers went to Sal vador, where they gained possession oi an undeveloped coffee plantation, after ward adding a sugar plantation and later establishing soap and gum factories. The l home of the Moisant brothers was in the mountains of Salvador. They participated | in the revolution and were rewarded witt | the state banking concession, of which they were deprived after a subsequent revolution.
 In Nicaragua and other republics o1 Central America John B. Moisant bore | reputation nothing short of legendary No hero of romance ever had so many extraordinary exploits attributed to him. according to stories that reached New | York. At time when Moisant was so- | journng in Honduras, 1t was told here | by a Nicaraguan, a tramp steamer loaded with a cargo valued at something like $10o,00O was cast ashore in a violent storm
 and abandoned. That night, in the teeth of the gale, Moisant made his way alone | to the steamer in a small dug-out and | took possession of the vessel. In the morning the storm abated and the ship S captain, accompanied by members of the crew and an agent of the line, rowed out l to the ship, which withstood the pound- | ing of the sea and wind, but which was | held fast on sunken reef in the outer | harbor They were halted by shot from Moisant's revolver There was some par | leying and the ships skipper rowed back to shore to inform the American con sul and the authorities that Moisant claimed the ship and her cargo as sal wage and had threatened to "blow the head off the first man who tried to come aboard
 | There was second expedition to the ship-this time with the American con sul and some native soldiers-but Moisant refused to be impressed, and, to show
 his sincerity of purpose. shot hole in the sombrero of the native commandant. The expedition to recapture the stranded steamer returned for endorsements of artillery, but during the night another | storm, more severe than the previous one. swept the harbor and captured the | wreck of the tramp. When daylight broke | the vessel was seen to have foundered Moisant was taken off later by the Amer ican consul, who found him lashed to
 the topmost rigging of the steamer, which rose only a few feet above the water
 Previous to this exploit Moisant appeared l in the news columns as handling rapid | fire gun for the Nicaraguans in an at | tack on Salvador, in one of the outbreaks there.
 The Moisant brothers, George. Alfred and John, and two sisters, for many years had interests valued at several hundred | thousand dollars in Salvador In 1907 | George and Alfred were imprisoned on charges of aiding and abetting the revo- lutionists of that republic and having secreted the revolutionary general, Esca-
 lon, when the revolutionists were repulsed
 by government troops at Acajutla. John Moisant fled to Nicaragua. His brothers
 later were released. but their property was attached as a bond to prevent their
 escape from the country. Two years later John headed a filibustering expedition against Salvador from Nicaragua, but 1t was nipped in the bud by the prompt &C., ton of Commander William s. Benson, l IT. &. A.. commanding the cruiser Albany, Iwho threatened to sink the vessel in | which the filibusters proposed to land on | Salvador.
 It was told of Moisant at the time that he went to Paris to obtain an aeroplane, with the aid of which he planned to fly into the country from which he had been exiled, and in it's spectacular manner to revive the dropping spirits of the revo- lutionists, however, so the story goes. He
 became so interested in the possibilities
 of the flying machine that political af-
 fairs in Central America interested him | less and less Soon he was an avowed aero enthusiast, and he began making flights. From the start his career as an
 aviator was marked with daring exploits He first came into worlds prominence last | August when he started on a flight from Paris to London with passenger, Albert Fileaux.
 | Moisant arrived in New York on Octo-
 her and was one of the most interesting figures at the aviation meet at Belmont park. He took second place in the inter- national aviation race when Grahame- White captured the trophy that Glenn Curtiss had brought to this country from France the year before and won the race around the Statue of Liberty. Just after | Moisants arrival from Paris and before appearing in the Belmont park meet, he | talked freely of his work. All his life he declared that he had been possessed of the mania to fly and early determined to solve the problem himself if no one else l did.
 q remember quite well.' he related, | "how, when a boy of IA or 15 used to catch birds and weigh them and measure their wings. tried in this way to figure ont A way of flying. It was all valuable to me. for have applied the principle learned then to my monoplanes.
 "Americans hear little of other aviators than professionals and because they hear | of so many accidents to professionals l they believe flying is the most dangerous | thing in the world. Aviation is not really dangerous, air racing is Do you hear all | the time about accidents in automobile racine% You would hear of more, too if every one who attempted to run an nu- | tomobile went at 90 miles per hour in- stead of 10. You learn to fly as a child learns first to creep, then to walk. then to run. The trouble with Americans SC
 far as aviation is concerned is they want the child to run before 1t Is born.'' He announced though that he would not sacrifice his life on the altar of American speed machines--laughingly speaking ot a
 warning"
 "No. I've never been hurt" he said. ''l
 have seven lives. I have risked five of them already, too, and am going to be