The Marshall republican. [volume] (Marshall, Saline County, Mo.) 1899-1914, 1911-10-12
Marshall's First
Air Ship
Monster Crowd Gathers on
Short Notice

ufstinctfOn Tuesuay evening When
Aviator Col Rogers landed here
OF being the landing point Of the
longest flight on record-Mr. Rog-
ers that day having broken the
long distance record. He alighted
gracefully at 4.s5 at the fair ground
and stopped here for the night. He
came here from Springfield, Ill,
the same day, leaving on his vest
ward trip at 8 a. m.
Soon after his arrival his special
train with two Pullman and
white hangar car also pulled into
the G. & A. Station.
Some Of our readers may wonder
why Mr.. Rogers coming was not
more generally announced. The
reason is that 1t was not known
till Saturday when the arrange
ments were made. His advance
agent Mr.. Peters, that day agreed
to have Rogers land here II a
purse OF 800 were raised. q. A.
Radford, president of our CONNER
cial club, at once took up the mat
ter and the agreement was made
that the purse be raised by private
subscriptions.
Word was sent out that as soon
as the "bird man" left Mexico, the
whistles OF the mills and shoe fac
tory would blow, which would still
give our people sufficient time 20
assemble.
About one o'clock Tuesday the
Whistles blew and an immepse
crowd soon assembled at the fair
grounds, only to be disappointed
by the announcement that break
down near Mexico had put the
machine out OF commission.
The crowd scattered after about
two hours and the blowing whis-
ties again brought them together
In a hurry.
About three minutes before his
arrival a spcck In the northeast
resembling a dragon-fly could be
seen. This drew nearer and, In
creased In size till the machine
was overhead and the whirr OF the
propellers could be heard. There
was again great disappointment as
II seemed Mr.. Rogers would go
past, but he suddenly turned and
came back. He sailed straight for
the large crowd descending rapid
ly and there was a sudden scatter
ing in all directions, but he passed
over the crowd again and made n
complete circuit OF the grounds,
coming lower gradually, till he
made a gentle descent in the open
space marked by a white cloth.
The people at once crowded
around the machine so tightly that
Il was hard for the rest to get
close, but he soon announced that
owing to some repairs he would
spend the night here and leave
Wednesday morning.
The words "Vin Fiz" were plain
ly TO be seen on the bottom OF the
and his manager announ-
ced to the crowd that Vim Fig was
a soft drink that could be bought
at SC n glass. He also announced
that the time for the $4,000 cross
continent prize expired Monday
night but that the flight would
continue anyway.
In an interview with Mr.. Rogers
at the Ruff Tuesday night he said
he had had a fine day OF it, al
though he was against the wind
most of the time. When he left
Springfield he had to alight again
for cylinder oil. He passed Mex
leo because they had failed to
make up the purse asked, but
had TO stop ten miles this side be-
cause OF dirty spark plug.
When Mexico found itself cut out,
they telephoned him to come back
and gladly paid the price. This
caused delay OF several hours and
the disappointment here. On reach
ing Marshall he was 1900 feet high,
he said, and as he started down
the magnetic belt broke and his
engine shut down, but he made a
very pretty and successful glide
down.
When told that he had just
broken the worlds record for cross
country flight, he said, "Is that
so? Well I knew I'd do 30 soon."
The distance covered Tuesday
was 2S5 miles, counting the loss
at Mexico. and total OF 14sl miles
on this trip, 15t miles farther than
Atwood,s record trip.
Representing 1.-The Associated
Press, the editor visited the spe-
cial train yesterday morning and
Wns treated most pleasantIv. g..