Arizona republican., 1911-11-09
READS LIKE DREAM
OF ARABIAN NIGHTS

Ell Paso' present epidemic of aero
planes has set some of the old timers
rcmininiscing, says the +, Paso Herald.
1'he next result of this retrospection
is the recollection of the report OF
the first airship that was supposed To
have floated through the ambient air
ever FL Paso This was back in lS9"
April 10. according To the files of the
Ell Paso Herald of the following day.
The paper of that date contained
chalk plate reproduction of vision
an unnamed FL Pasoan had. during
the night previous, when he saw or
thought he saw. a monster airshlp
go cruising through the air. passing
FL Paso and heading for Chihuahua,
Mexico.
The supposed apparition was seen
about > O'Clock in the morning, ac-
cOrding to the story the unnamed
individual told the next morning after
taking a solemn oath that he was
neither drunk nor drinking on the
night in question. 1t was won
drous white craft with forward and
aft searchlights. a pair of pro-
pellers. and a cigar shaped body.
with giant wings protruding from
each side like the dragon of a Wag-
rerian opera.
Here is the Arabian Nights dream
the FL Pasoan of IA years ago had.
"All of a sudden he (the Dandy
Dreamer) saw what he thought at
first was a very bright star in the
east 1t appeared to be moving rap
idly and becoming brighter and
brighter lie then thought it was
meteor. but il was moving very
steadily. directed towards town. He
then thought of the airship about
mich he had been reading, and
watched the object closely. 1t came
close to where he was lying and did
rot seem to be more than 500 feet
in the air. II made no noise. but
he could hear voices. as If two or
more people were talking. AS the
airship passed over him its course
was changed and it rose to higher
altitude: its speed was considerably
s!ackened and for over an hour Il
scared over the city, going in all
directions. After a while 1t started
eff south in the direction of Chi
huahua and it was lost sight of The
man says the ship seemed to be CT
gar shaped and was from 40 to 50
feet long.
In front and back there were tire
mendous strong searchlights, and at
the portfolios in the sides rays OF
bright lights streamed out. on each
side of the ship there were large
wing shaped contrivances and at each
end two large propellers. which turn
ed with furious velocity. on top
there seemed to be several of these
propellers that moved very fast"
This brings to mind an airship
seen by George Purdy Billiard. the
democratic candidate for attorney
general. last spring. one night Mr..
Eullard called up newspaper Of
flee and directed attention to heav-
emily wanderer which he was sure was
an airship with search light, recon-
noitering northwest of Phoenix. Mr.;
Rullard had been watching it for half
an hour and had called out all the
neighbOrs. 1t was plain that it was
not star, for there was haze over
the heavens in that section which
obscured the stars. Besides, it APP
peared to Mr.. Billiard that the air
ship was moving about as if the oc-
cupants were hunting a landing place.
Meanwhile it was moving slowly to-
ward the western horizon so that BY
the time he had apprised the news
paper office and the rest of the town
it was pretty low down. But there
was no doubt in the popular mind
that it was an airshiD. The next
night Mr.. Billiard saw it again, but
that time he didn't tell anybody. He
kept it all to himself for there was
no haze in the sky then and he could
see that what he had taken for
searchlight was particularly bright
star which had shone through the