Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-02-19

muscle refused to do more work upward
I have experienced it more often than
any living aviator, yet even now / cannot
recall any detached or definite impress
sions Of it-nothng but a shuddeTinG
memory of horrors rushing by with an
awful sense of defenselessness and futility
of effort as l fairly shrieked through the
air to earth with the chances one nun
dred to one against a safe landing.
Anybody can climb for height said
Morane. TIE thing is to get down
again.
And Morane knew-knew enough to
give it mp before his death. just as the
other altitude climbers. except myself,
gave ii up until young 1egagneauX,
newcomer, startled us all by his mar
velous work that kept mo from my COW
eted honor of being the first TO touch
10000. But | venture TO say that 1eSaS-
ncaux will wait long time before he
attempts this again. One descent from
that height is likely TO he experience
enough to satisfy a man for long time
should like to have had him with me
on nv flight from Philadelphia for the
altitude record-that fellow who said
that it was getting easier all the time.
l venture to say that thereafter, when
the papers record another altitude record
in a few brief words. he would do as |
in through his teeth at the realization or
the ages of suffering that the aviator
must have undergone during his hour
and some minutes of flying
That man should have seen the beau
tieuI BIeriot as she swept gracefully Off
the ground with me that DAY at POINT
Breeze and as she flew. without effort
and with scarcely tremoT, In the 1lrSt
wide preliminary circles as | mounted
the first 1000 feet.
Easy, That would have looked easy
enough certainly.
There didn't seem to he bit OF e1ort
to 1t, imagine. The machine must have
looked like a great gull or a buzzard
floating OH the breeze, ana 1 suppose .
might have been sound asleep in her for
all the spectators on the ground could
have seen of motion or of effort On my
part
Then came the clouds and ! worked
nv way up through them. hoping that
thev would not be thick nor last long.
for above the clouds in the sunlight are
the wickedest gusts. and it means fight
-fght-fight all the time.
The hand of the aneroid barometer in
front of me kept creeping round and
round as mounted; the first two thou
sand feet were tolled off quickly and then
more and more slowly the indicator went
as I entered the tiunner strata of the
upper air and began the struggle to pass
the thousand marks. Three, four, five,
six thousand ] passed. each one taking
an increasing length of time and requir-
ing more of physical effort and mental
and nervous strain.
-
Soon the hand of the aneroid began to
caper back and forth; I knew / was
mounting steadily. but the little instru-
ment did not show 1t and finally Topped
back near the starting point and stayed
there. The anerod had evidently gone
higher than 1t was ever intended to go
and now was completely out of commits
sion.
\ barograph-which is recording
barometer. incased in quite a fair sized
wooden box with glass frcnt-had been
tied about my neck and hung in front
of me, just far enough down for it to
rest easily in my lap as I sat in my
seat. I took one hand from the control
and turned the face of the Paragraph up
toward me. Through the glass front L
could see the purple line that had traced