Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1911-10-14
HUGH ROBINSON
HAS CLOSE Gall.
AVIATOR JUMPS FROM TAxicAs
THAT coLLIDEs WITH STREET
CAR.
FRIDAY. THE 18TH, PROVES
~joNAH DAY" FOR eiRDMAN
In His Hydre-Asroplans, No. Is, Rob-
jnson Attempts Flight OF 18th as
Thirtsen Ducks Swim Across Lake
Calhoun Ahead Of Him-Air Bad and
Start on Lons Journey Delayed.

Start on Long Journey Delayed.
Hugh Robinson, Curtiss aviator
& ,whe~few here Sept. Il, and who was
to have started his long flight IRON
Minneapolis to New Orleans Friday,
found a .hoodoon~in-Friday the 18th.
+ After having had q narrow escape
when a taxicab in which, he was rid
ing collided with q street cal. which
compelled Robinson to jump in order 10
save his life, the aviator was COM
PEELED to give up his trip in his No. 10
ship because OF the weather. Iharteen
ducks. which SWAN across LAX Cal
houn ahead of the Aviators craft, falleo
70 disturb Robinson In the least.
The Minneapolis Journal Of Friday
evening says OF Robinson's attempted
flight:
"Hounded by the same bad luck that
sent a forty-fve mile wind earlier in
the day to beat his frail airship back
10 the surface Of Lake Calhoun, where
$4,000 people watched his fight, Hugh
Robinson narrowly escaped death
shortly before l p. m. today. when ne
leaped from a taxicab that crashed
into a street car ear Hennepin and
Summit smashing the taxi,
badly as 1t skidded down h hill be-
yond control OF the driver.
Early today tho thiolkendng vapor and
the fall Of rain told that the fates had
not been favorable for the great fight
to New Orleans, which was to start
at s a. m. Unwilling to disappoint the
enormous crowd that covered every
vantage point about Lake Calhoun, and
undisturbed by the omen Of a flock of
thirteen luz that swan across the
end of the lake. and were and
commented upon by thousands OF peo-
pie, Robinson made an attempt to get
away and failed for III time being.
only to leap. later, from his taxi. town
ward bound, as the front was crushed
in where he had been sitting.
Automobiles r very dangerous
said the aviator. as he Strengthened
himself up and boarded a street car.
."Altho the sun was hid, a clouds
hung overhead and rain that had fall
len during the night kept dropping a
little the streets that led 10 the inter
section OF Lake street and Calhoun
boulevard began to thicken with life
as early as 7:15 a. M, and when the
police arrived they found several thou
sand people already on the ground. Ten
and twenty deep they stood about the
space that the police a cleared and
as 5 o'clock drew near they covered
the ground and spread out for a quar-
" ter n{sa mile along the shore, filling the
~c6ncrete bridges Of the parkway and
standing along up to Mendoza Beach.
far down the shore in the other di-
rection, along the high ground on the
boulevard. climbing the trees, the
housetops and filling canoes rowboats
and launches that moved of shore. On
the ground level a wind that Robin
son SAID was about twenty miles an
hour. which he said, may meal forty
miles up high was felt by everyone.
! but it was not the wind but h gusts
that came Internationally that the
great crowd talked about.
P~Sssntiment Of Bad Luck.
; ~'Presentiment that something wal
going to happen to him seemed to be
with Robinson, and many people in the
crowd felt that way and so expressed
themselves The damp air, moist
ground, the r1pples on the water where
the gusts struck It and the gray clouds
looked bad. But az 8 a. m. passed the
wings were manned, the airship turned,
but not to a c h water, but not be-
more the nail pouch had been light
ened and everything again gone over
and frightened or inspected. Then
when the big paddle started to revolve
and 1.-THE air current sent back blew hats
in all directions and drove the crowd
away from 1t, the hydroplane hit the
water and glided far out on the lake
hnfn~0 tho = vytnA~- o. -:->
More than half way across he took a
southwark course and, as the graceful.
bird-like machine took the air, a great
shout went up, hats were waved and
the crowd moved e~xcitedly.
Day = Bad One.
1T was a day like that three weeks
ago when Cromwell Dixon fell to his
death in Spokane and the air was ike
the air against which Capt. ohm Fris-
bic rode to death in Kansas. Across the
lake Robinson fiew, straight and cas-.
while he kept below the level Of the
wooded rim that surrounds 1t. and
when % far across that it looked IS il
he would fly over Cottage City he rose
gracefully, but with ominous dips from
side to aide, and met the upper air
current. It was apparent that he could
i0I ALAS H.. II SQIuSu, It1 DaCk,
above the lake, passed high above the
heads Of the people near the edge OF
the water ~ he turned and waved his
hand to the cheering thousands, dipped
again, passed again to the former point
that marked sahe route to far on New
Orleans and rose higher.
Wind esats Him Down.
1.-THE wind that blew across the
woods and border Lakes Calhoun and
Harriet caught him hard. He persisted
but made little progress. Five bun
drel feet up he turned again. and as
b turned, the velocity of the wind and
its 6tfulness could be e for there
was . sidewtss dip that brought one
end Of the machine low enough te
make hearts down below beat faster.
Then ne glided gracefully down to jus,
shove the waters surface, headed in
for shore and landed easily e the
nlace from whichthe had started