The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-01-18
STORIES Of AIRCRAFT.
Ever Since Time Began Poets and
Story-TeIlers Have Told Them.

Story-TeIers Have Told Them.
Ever since time began there have
been stories of flying machines of
one sort or another. Back in Greek
days there was young Icarus, who at
tached wings to his shoulders with
wax and flew so near the sun that
they were melted and dropped off,
leaving him to drop down and get
killed. Witches We're said to ride
broomsticks, and there were magic
carpets and flying horses, from Pc
gasus himself to the Arabian steed
who wore a peg in his shoulder. But
as a matter of fact, in spite of the
tales, every one kept his feet firmly
on the ground and only laughed at
the foolish poets and story tellers.
But today it is the poets and the
story tellers who can do the laugh
ing. There are flying machines up
in the air almost all the time now,
somewhere or other. And along
Broadway and Fifth avenue you can
buy aviation clothes just as easily
as you could get bathing suit They
don't resemble the peaked caps and
fluttering cloaks of the broomstick-
riding witches perhaps, but they are
sufficiently queer in appearance.
Another Frenchman, Robida by
name, wrote a story of the future
he died quite a while ago-in which
he foretold an exciting war with Am
erica, and this story had flying ma
chimes used by the French army.
These machines were long, cigar
shaped things, with wings managed
by machinery and controlled by the
rider, who sat astride the car on
seat. Robida came quite close to
facts as they are now, going into de-
tails in a really extraordinary fash
ion. But the best flying machine in
the world is Rudyard Kipling's With
the Night Mail" When he wrote It
nothing definite had yet been accom-
plished: and now who will dare say
that all he foretold in that wonder
full story will not come true? If you
haven't read it, ! advise YOU to get
the volume of stories in which it ap
pears, Actions and Reactions al
though a number of the other stories
may not interest you as yet. In the
same book is the poem, The Four
Angels" which expresses about the
same idea as the one l have been
trying to trap with words for you. The
last verse goes this way:
As Adam was a-working outside of
Eden,
He used the Earth, he used the Seas,
he used the Air and ALL
And out of black disaster
He rose to be the master
OF Earth and Water, Air and Fire,
But Never reached his hearts desire.
Never yet has man caught up with |
that-his hearts desire. For though,
when we look back on all man has
done. it appears as if he had put to
imagine or desire something, how !
ever strange or impossible, TO have |
il come true at last, none the less, |
We are busy then with another fancy, |
another wish. So We keep the world |
moving along the ringing grooves of
change" We have by no means
caught up with the Night Mail yet,
but that amazing journey will be ia
ken in the future, if We may judge
what is TO come by what has gone
before. For not only do We realize
the dizzy imaginings of the men who
have preceded US, but with each new
we move more quickly to
the next, each fresh invention hur-
rying along scores of others-From
Hawthorne's Books and
Roadix,sx,, N-ioholaS